CLEVELAND — Ted Ginn has an entire collection of track and field state championship trophies that he won as a coach. But a football state title is missing from the collection.
“We don’t have that,” Ginn said. “Haven’t had that ever. So that’s a goal for this year.”
His team went to the title game in 2009 when future Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones was on the team. They lost that game by one point. They got the chance to try for a state title again in 2013.
“We’ve been close, but we just didn’t finish it out,” Ginn said. “The plan is to try to get one here for the city for the community for the alumni of Glenville.”
If he wins this game, he will become the first coach of a Cleveland public high school football team to win a state championship. He said a win will change how people view a high school team in a city.
“We’re not disciplined. We’re not smart enough, the coaches are not good enough,” Ginn said. “That has been a stigma around here for 40 years.”
The team practiced indoors this week and made the trip from Ginn Academy. Some players attend the school, which Ginn started in 2007 to help give young men more resources in school and in athletics. He said he may not have as many resources as other schools, but he has a coaching staff that makes up for it.
“A Glenville coach is not a coach that can go to the board and put Xs and Os up,” Ginn said. “A Glenville coach searches the heart of a kid. And that’s the difference to make them believe that they can achieve.”
And Ginn said his players know they can make history, since there won’t be another first public school in the city to win a state championship crown in football.
“I’ll always be able to walk around. Somebody will ask me the question like have you won a state championship? I can be like, me and my teammates, we’re the first,” said Bryce West, a junior.
As Ginn prepares his squad for the game, he said he wants his players to know who’s counting on them.
“You got to serve the community, you got to serve the city,” Ginn told his players. “You got young guys that are looking at you. You gonna be the first person to accomplish something this big.”
This is also the first time Ginn will enter a state title game undefeated.
