Award-winning journalist David Lee Morgan Jr.,, who spent the 2019 season as an assistant coach for the Massillon Tigers, one of the oldest and most storied high school football programs in the country, provides an up-close-and-personal look at the season, which starts with so much promise and ends with the agony of another high-stakes defeat.
The Massillon Washington High School football program isn’t a typical high school football program. It’s a ministry of football with the first season dating back to 1894. In this small, midwestern Ohio rustbelt town, the community has rallied around this team every Friday at historic Paul Brown Tiger Stadium (capacity 16,000) for decades. The school has produced numerous NFL standouts, including coaching legend and Hall of Famer Paul Brown. The Massillon support- locally and nationwide- is unrivaled and is arguably one of the most recognizable and successful high school football programs in the country.
Author and award-winning journalist and sportswriter David Lee Morgan, Jr., teaches English and Creative Writing at Washington High School. When he accepted the job to coach the running backs just before the start of the 2019 season, he decided to chronicle every angle, every story, every emotion for this book. The Tigers finished the previous season 14-1, with a loss in the state championship game. The expectations were that Massillon would reach the title game again the following year. And with that, Morgan, having unprecedented access to the staff, players, and day-to-day operations, began to chronicle the season.
Although Massillon has won 24 state championships and nine national championships, the Tigers have not won a state title since Ohio implemented a playoff system in 1972. That is why some critics call Massillon the “Paper Tigers.” The program has been trying to shed that moniker for years and this book chronicles Massillon’s quest to win that elusive and long-awaited title.
In this dramatic and entertaining book, Author David Lee Morgan, Jr. shares stories that offer a unique and unequaled perspective into the 2019 season and the Tigers’ quest for that elusive state championship. There are stories of triumph, and in some unfortunate cases tragedy, yet, this football family and community continued to show why it is so special, and why it is such a unique community.
Foreword by Jim Tressel (Ohio State Football coach)
