I know Norwalk is much bigger than Norwalk St. Paul and they in my time of following football have not had not had the success of the smaller school.

One why is that?
Two have the two schools played before? If so what is the all time series between the two.

Thanks.

While not having much success let's not forget that Norwalk High also has a state playoff title. The Truckers won a championship in 1974. Since then....zilch.

With Norwalk being a D2 school it would be humiliating if they were to play and for Norwalk to lose to a D6 school every year. The coaching for St Paul is always top notch while at Norwalk, not so much.

Keith wrote: While not having much success let's not forget that Norwalk High also has a state playoff title. The Truckers won a championship in 1974. Since then....zilch.

Thanks for that info I was to lazy to look up former champs.

Norwalk was a middle sized D3 school for a while, now they are barely D2, I think by 1 boy.
Norwalk and St Paul try not to play, AD's act/think it would make community relations suffer.
St Paul has very few move-ins, but draw players that based on geography, would end up going to Norwalk instead.

In the last decade + it seems that they've had 1-2 good skill players on every team and a poor line. Like in the late 90's with the DeLuca's. This year, their best player was out effectively the whole year


Norwalk had 3 straight winning seasons after their championship, then 5-5 at best since then, but they normally play a solid to very tough out of conference schedule that makes it hard to win for a struggling program. This year they played Perkins and Edison that both made the playoffs for their OOC games, that seems to happen often where 2/3 of OOC opponents make the playoffs or would if 8 teams made it.

The Truckers best teams since their championship, always seem to come when the NOL is at it's strongest.

The '98 Truckers team would have had a good chance to blow out the Flyers, the Truckers had a great offense.
http://nol.iwarp.com/leaguestandings.html IIRC, All loses came versus teams that made the playoffs or would have if 8 teams made the playoffs, including Perkins and Huron in OOC games.

IMO, in most years in the last 2 decades+, the Truckers would hold their own at least. This year though, the Flyers would like run up and down the field on the Truckers.

The lack of success has allowed them to be part of history. Please name me another school that has never lost in the playoffs?

Keith is right; despite Norwalk's poor Football History(only 2 NOL Titles in over 60 years(1 being shared with 2 others in 74), and an alltime record of about 350 wins and over 600 losses, they won the Class AA Title in 74. With St. Paul's State Title today, Norwalk has a State Champ from each Public/Private, something Fremont, Sandusky, nor Tiffin can claim from this general area, and one typically would think Norwalk being the lesser Football town than the others.

If you count the 74 title then St. Paul has two they won AP championship in 69. I would love to see one of St. Paul's OOC games be Norwalk, it would be an instant rivalry. I would also like to see Norwalk have a better football program, its possible, just need to get a program built up, a good coach, and some school pride. I also hear that the parents are too involved by overuling the coaches authority or putting up a stink when it comes to important decisions, such as who should play. Well if Norwalk ever wants a good team, then you have too let the coach do his job. Parents need to step back.

flyerfan64 wrote: If you count the 74 title then St. Paul has two they won AP championship in 69.

Nah, the '74 title was won on the field. NSP's '69 title came via a poll.

flyerfan64 wrote: If you count the 74 title then St. Paul has two they won AP championship in 69.

Yes and No.

It's the old how many championships does Massilion have question.

St. Paul does have two state titles.
St. Paul has one playoff championship.

Better days are ahead for the Truckers. It starts with building the total foundation. St. Paul kids have a committment towards their weight lifting program, summer programs and whatever else is needed to suceed. I have heard that Norwalk has gotten better participation in the last year in their weight lifting programs than they have in the past. Hopefully results will start to show up on the field. This past year they had many young players and were somewhat competitive in many games (yes the NOL was down though). I honestly believe Norwalk WILL win 6 games next year (if not more) and hopefully that will be what is needed to "jump start" a down program. New coach, more committment towards the off season programs, a potential winning season could go along way to moving the program forward.

Go Truckers !!

The way I see things, Norwalk public does not value football like St Paul does. And that's not a criticism, just an observation. There are other things for kids to do besides football. St Paul has a long tradition going back into the '50' and '60's. Parents/alumni enjoyed playing football and the school has been blessed with what I believe is a high percentage of alumni choosing to stay here and raise families. Many of those old guys were pretty good athletes, so it follows that the ability and tradition are there. St Paul's senior class has now watched or played in how many playoff games? Do you think the St Paul 5th graders would like to play football after watching Saturday's champ game? You better believe they do.

Norwalk doesn't have that. There's some negativity around the program in the last couple decades. Winning is contagious, so is losing.

Football is a team sport, and I don't mean just the 11 guys on the field. It takes a parents, a booster club and a feeder program from 5th grade through 8th, one that is ON THE SAME PAGE as the varsity. A coaching staff that is one unit from top to bottom. Norwalk values winning at an early age, and for instance, will play a kid at running back that will not play running back in high school. St Paul will not do that. The kids want to win, but winning is always secondary. Developing a player's skill and character are #1. This years seniors just won a state title, but in 8th grade I believe they went 4-3 4-2 something like that. I can remember certain teams to the south of us kicking the crap out of that little 8th grade team, and relishing every minute of it. This is the exact same lineup they had in 8th grade, minus three kids who transferred out of St Paul to other schools. These seniors have been together since primary grades. Every one of them without exception. So what Norwalk needs to ask themselves is, what happened to make this trophy possible for these seemingly average kids? The answer is there, but it's a very difficult answer.

Can we please drop the misguided notion that St Paul is taking football players that would normally go to Norwalk public? That notion has no basis in fact. Like I said, the whole senior class intact from primary grades. Most of the Norwalk parents that I know would not send their kids to St Paul because it's a Catholic school, and I'm not talking a Notre Dame type of wishy washy Catholic school. St Paul is a very committed Catholic community. Norwalk public families have their own religious identities and that is just fine. Plus its also about 4K to go to school at St Paul.
If St Paul was to take kids from Norwalk, don't you think we'd have grabbed a couple kids over 200 pounds???!!!!! Geez.

It would be pointless to have the two teams play each other. Hard feelings would result. There is already anger over middle school games.

From what I saw a couple years ago -

1. Norwalk's weight room was a classroom at the new high school. Very few weights and very few coaches around to supervise the lifting, thus having the room closed most of the time. Someone please tell me if this has changed.

2. Norwalk's 7th and 8th grade teams perform well almost every year. One problem - only 15 or so kids get to play in a game, unless it's a blowout. The middle school coaches need to focus less on winning the game and more on playing everyone. Just because a kid is small in middle school doesn't mean he won't grow up into a tough player by high school. When only 15 or so get to play, your numbers go down. Seriously, who wants to get hit at practice all week, then sit on the bench during the game.

3. Norwalk and St. Paul have been playing a freshman contest for a couple years. This year's game went to Norwalk by two or three touchdowns.

4. Finally, IMO, students want to participate in sports that have winning traditions. The Norwalk football program does not. Yes - there is the state title in 1974 and the NOL title in 1976, but nothing since then. If I was going to play football and I lived in Norwalk, I would find a way to enroll at St. Paul over Norwalk. It's not Livengood or any other school official that is recruiting players - it's the fact that St. Paul keeps winning year in and year out. Winning conference titles, regional titles, and now a state title, is a school's best recruiting tool.

These are, of course, just my opinions.

playall18 wrote:

2. Norwalk's 7th and 8th grade teams perform well almost every year. One problem - only 15 or so kids get to play in a game, unless it's a blowout. The middle school coaches need to focus less on winning the game and more on playing everyone. Just because a kid is small in middle school doesn't mean he won't grow up into a tough player by high school. When only 15 or so get to play, your numbers go down. Seriously, who wants to get hit at practice all week, then sit on the bench during the game.

I've been told on a few occasions the "logic" was to get these players a taste of winning in preparation for Varsity(due to, of course, lack of winning tradition).

I wouldn't send my kids to a certain school just because of sports.

agree with 94hoops.. although sports are important, the classroom is the most important.. many choose st paul because they want their children to have a catholic education.. my mom in fact grad from st paul,, although they chose to put me thru Huron.. but my mom's sister went to norwalk high.. dont ask..i dont know either..LOl

far as success on the football field goes.. norwalk high just doesnt click in football but theyve had wonderful success in other sports.. baseball, soccer, tennis.. ect. thats just how the water flows..

JakeGiant wrote:
I've been told on a few occasions the "logic" was to get these players a taste of winning in preparation for Varsity(due to, of course, lack of winning tradition).

That doesn't seem like very good logic. Eliminate some players before they mature into young men. I'm sure there are a lot of "big boys" roaming the halls at Norwalk that could help out on the offensive line, as well as a few "skilled position" players who were not played in 7th and 8th grade.

sportsvideo wrote: agree with 94hoops.. although sports are important, the classroom is the most important.. many choose st paul because they want their children to have a catholic education.. my mom in fact grad from st paul,, although they chose to put me thru Huron.. but my mom's sister went to norwalk high.. dont ask..i dont know either..LOl

far as success on the football field goes.. norwalk high just doesnt click in football but theyve had wonderful success in other sports.. baseball, soccer, tennis.. ect. thats just how the water flows..

If I remember correctly, there was a story in the Norwalk Reflector a few years back that more Catholics played football for Monroeville than St. Paul. There was outrage about a "fish fry." Families were upset, apologies were made, etc. If parents were concerned with success in the classroom, many would send their child to Norwalk as the public school boasts more AP classes and more class selection - at least that's what parents have told me. I don't have any children, so I wouldn't know first hand. If I am wrong, let me know!

I don't think anyone is saying St. Paul recruits Arnold, I haven't seen it in this thread so not sure why you even need to bring that up. Maybe other towns "assume" St. Paul recruits but Norwalk people know that isn't the case. Myself personally, at this time I hope my grandchild goes to St. Paul once he gets into school. Not because of football, but because of the graduation rates and more importantly the % of students that go on into college.

Back to football, again I believe once the off season programs develop and have the committment from all (like St. Paul), that is where you will see the improvement.

Finally, not sure about playing time in the Jr. Trucker program but I liked what I saw last year with MacFarland trying to only play boys one way, you saw limited players playing 1st team both ways. I think that will go a long way to building the numbers needed to compete regularly.

Who is consider Norwalk's biggest rival?

norwalk wrote: I don't think anyone is saying St. Paul recruits Arnold, I haven't seen it in this thread so not sure why you even need to bring that up.

Yes you are correct. There was a thread going elsewhere at the same time that brought the issue up of St Paul attracting football players from Norwalk. But not on this thread. My bad.

I think everybody in this town, including every football fan I know from St. Pauls, hopes Norwalk can turn their football program around. There has never been a shortage of talent as evidenced by their record grades 5-9. From what I have observed over the years there are 3 key elements that contribute to a winning varsity program:
1. Year round committment in the weight room. (Not sure what the program is like at Norwalk)

2. Focus on participation and learning grades 5-9 rather than winning. Going undefeated in 5th grade isn't much to hang your hat on when the varsity is 1-9. (Everybody knows this is a problem at Norwalk, but for whatever reason nobody ever does anything about it.)

3. Hire and Support the right head coach. This includes freedom to choose assitant coaches and run his program HIS way...

Norwalk has always been known for loyal fans and a great booster organization. There is always pleanty of talent. Best of luck to coach McFarland and the team on returning to a winning program!

playall18 wrote:

sportsvideo wrote: agree with 94hoops.. although sports are important, the classroom is the most important.. many choose st paul because they want their children to have a catholic education.. my mom in fact grad from st paul,, although they chose to put me thru Huron.. but my mom's sister went to norwalk high.. dont ask..i dont know either..LOl

far as success on the football field goes.. norwalk high just doesnt click in football but theyve had wonderful success in other sports.. baseball, soccer, tennis.. ect. thats just how the water flows..

If I remember correctly, there was a story in the Norwalk Reflector a few years back that more Catholics played football for Monroeville than St. Paul. There was outrage about a "fish fry." Families were upset, apologies were made, etc. If parents were concerned with success in the classroom, many would send their child to Norwalk as the public school boasts more AP classes and more class selection - at least that's what parents have told me. I don't have any children, so I wouldn't know first hand. If I am wrong, let me know!

Arnold wrote:

norwalk wrote: I don't think anyone is saying St. Paul recruits Arnold, I haven't seen it in this thread so not sure why you even need to bring that up.

Yes you are correct. There was a thread going elsewhere at the same time that brought the issue up of St Paul attracting football players from Norwalk. But not on this thread. My bad.

Actually St.Paul's has one of the highest average scores on the OGT year in and year out (Diocese of Toledo). People send their kids there for a Catholic education, and they normally come out with a pretty decent resume for colleges.

I would have to say its the other way around. Traditionally NSP loses players to Norwalk. Faustino Dominguez, Mitch Mcguckin, Kyle Lieber, the Kurtz brothers, are just a few I can think of off the top of my head. They all came up through the Catholic shcool system. Jsut to toss it out there, 2 of "The four" from Monroeville spent time in the catholic school system, and the brothers can be spotted in St.Pauls on sunday from time to time, though I think they are parishioners from St. Joes.

Eating Edith wrote: St Paul has very few move-ins, but draw players that based on geography, would end up going to Norwalk instead.

This is what I was responding to. I disagree with this.

St. Paul has been a "football school" forever.

I can't understand why NHS didn't make more of it's championship in 74. It would seem that would have been a launching pad for continued success.

Other than football and girl's volleyball SP's teams have been about average IMO And yes, the basketball team has had some success but nothing matching the football team!