No matter how many years have gone by, the tradition of high school football has remained strong in the Mantua community as evidenced by the annual Crestwood alumni football games before the start of each season. The Red Devils’ alumni team will hit the road and take on Portage County rival Rootstown at Robert C. Dunn Field on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.
“It’s full contact, full pads, under the lights just like a high school football game,” Crestwood Alumni Team Captain Jason Miller told The Weekly Villager on July 31. “A few of us played in college but it does not matter, it is just about putting those pads back on in every year and it is nostalgic. It does bring us back to life, in a way.”
For approximately three decades, Crestwood has assembled a team of graduates who played football during their high school days to play against another school’s team of alumni. Miller credited former Crestwood coach Grover Vaught for organizing the alumni games until he took over that responsibility.
Crestwood’s alumni football games had been an older generation vs. a younger generation of Red Devil graduates for a while but they scheduled an annual contest against Portage Country rival Streetsboro in 2018. Despite the allure of the alumni game being a clash of Portage County rivals, the Red Devils looked for new opponents because the last several games had not been competitive.
According to Miller, Rootstown’s alumni team captain reached out to volunteer the Rovers for the annual alumni game. Miller added that although former Crestwood head football coach Tom Hannan had recently been appointed Rootstown’s new coach, it was pure coincidence that the Rovers wanted to face Crestwood’s alumni team.
“We built a reputation and we played for so long and right now we do well,” Miller said. “They are pretty organized, they have a good alumni system over there so they do all of the fundraisers and that stuff so it feels nice to have them take over that responsibility.”
All proceeds raised from the alumni game will be donated to the Rootstown Gridiron Club. Despite the Red Devils being the visiting team, Miller said that he was confident that a Crestwood would be well-represented in the cheering section to provide team spirit.
If the score is lopsided at the half or if either suffers from injuries, the game clock will be shortened. Miller said that although the Rovers may have a bigger team, the Red Devils’ alumni brings more experience having competed in many more types of these games than Rootstown has.
“Just speaking from my heart, I hope it is a nice and close game, but I also want to win so that is the ultimate goal, but the main thing is that I want everybody healthy and want to have fun,” Miller said.
Miller, who has served as the team captain since 2018, said that although most of the alumni that compete on the team are far removed from their own playing days, their football awareness and IQ has not diminished.
“I don’t think it goes away and there are some guys that never learned routes because they played line or defense,” he noted “For the most part these guys are smart and have been playing so long so they know the systems and can just jump right in there even if they don’t know everything.”
While winning the game is a nice feather in their cap, Miller emphasized that the primary focus of the game is to instill community pride in their respective football programs and inspire Portage County youth to either continue with their football training or join their school district’s youth football programs.
Miller added that Crestwood head coach Jack D’Amato does a lot to encourage the Alumni game because he hopes that the football tradition will remain strong in the Mantua community.
