Cuyahoga Heights’ 42-0 win over Beachwood on Friday positioned the Red Wolves for a spot in the postseason.
Equally as important, the victory was the 250th of head coach Al Martin’s career at Cuyahoga Heights, which began in 1997.
“The thing for me is I’ve spent that time at a good school,” Martin said. “We have a lot of great kids and it’s been a lot of fun. I’ve worked with a lot of great people, coaching and teaching, and you get to impact different kids’ lives every year.”
Martin has guided the Red Wolves to two state championship game appearances.
Despite still chasing that elusive state title, Martin believes the journey is just as important as the destination.
“Year after year, the staff and the kids go in and try to have the best year possible,” he said. “It’s the same thing with teaching, you can’t really look back. We’d love to have that state championship and you wonder what you could have done differently, but the fun thing about coaching and teaching is you get to start fresh every year and you get a new group of kids together in the classroom and you just do the best you can.”
As rewarding as the wins are, Martin takes great pride in the number of former players who went on to compete in college and in the several former players who are now coaching at the high school and college levels.
“We’ve got three guys on our staff who played in our program while I’ve been here, and they do a great job and they really energize us,” Martin said. “They’re young guys with fresh blood, and then we have some guys coaching in college and we have a guy on the practice squad in Detroit (NFL). Following those guys who graduated and keeping track of what they’re doing, and a lot of them come back to our golf outing every summer, it’s those memories and the friendships that you’ll cherish forever.”
