Consistency.
In a word, that summarizes the highly successful career of Oak Harbor High School football coach Gary Quisno.
Through 30 years, including the last 28 at Oak Harbor, Quisno has had just three losing records and his teams have won at least seven games in 23 of those seasons.
With his 2006 Rockets taking a 13-0 mark into a Division IV state semifinal against Plain City Jonathan Alder (12-1) tomorrow night at Lima Senior Stadium, Quisno is having as much fun coaching at age 52 as he's ever had.
Because of his excellence - both long term and this season - Quisno is the 2006 Blade coach of the year.
Other top candidates for the honor included Joe Palka of Whitmer, Derek Kidwell of Fremont Ross, Shane Jacoby of Lakota, Matt Kregel of Perrysburg, and John Miller of Toledo Christian.
Quisno, a 1972 graduate of Port Clinton High School, was a two-time All-Great Lakes League football standout who also lettered in basketball and track.
He knew as early as junior high that he wanted to become a high school teacher and coach, although basketball was his first focus.
His introduction to football, besides his sandlot youth games in Port Clinton, came as a die-hard fan of the Cleveland Browns. His late father, Don, was a Browns season-ticket holder.
Don often took Gary to games, where they saw the great Jim Brown, among other stars, play at the old Municipal Stadium. Although he did not go to the Browns' 1964 NFL championship game, Gary still has the title-game program.
After graduating high school, Quisno enrolled at Miami (Ohio) University and joined the football team as a walk-on. The first Miami player he met at Oxford was another walk-on named Ron Zook, who would later become the University of Florida head coach. Zook is head coach at Illinois.
Quisno decided on Miami after attending a Bowling Green State University game during his senior year at Port Clinton. The Falcons were playing Miami, and Quisno read a story in the game program about Miami being football's "Cradle of Coaches," producing legends such as Woody Hayes, Ara Parseghian, and Bo Schembechler.
The 6-foot-3 Quisno attained a partial scholarship after his freshman year, then lettered for three seasons as a tight end, earning a full scholarship for his last two years.
"I was lucky enough to play on some great teams," Quisno said. "It was a great football experience because of the camaraderie and the chemistry of the teams I played on, and the great coaches we had."
Quisno experienced Miami's greatest three-year stretch ever. Then known as the Redskins, Miami went 32-1-1 (1973-75), had three straight unbeaten Mid-American Conference championship teams and won three consecutive Tangerine Bowl games.
The only loss came at Michigan State. The tie was with Purdue, which Miami beat twice during the run. The Redskins, who ended those seasons respectively ranked 15th, 10th, and 12th nationally, also beat Florida, Goergia, Kentucky, and South Carolina under head coaches Bill Mallory and Dick Crum.
Much of what Quisno did when he began coaching prep teams came directly from his Miami playbooks, and he still uses schemes and techniques he picked up in Oxford.
"I'm definitely old-school," Quisno said. "We like to run the football, we play good defense and we emphsize the kicking game. We're not one of those trendy offenses where we're throwing on every down.
"Nothing against that kind of football; it's just that what we do fits our kids and what we do here at Oak Harbor. We're known for wrestling and football, and we get hard-working, blue-collar type kids who accept the discipline."
Quisno began as an assistant at Pontiac (Mich.) Central in 1976, then head coach at Danbury (1977-78). After 8-2 and 5-5 league-title seasons, he was hired at Oak Harbor in 1979.
Quisno, who is 216-79 with the Rockets, won three Suburban Lakes League titles and has added five more in the Sandusky Bay Conference. He has taught math at Oak Harbor for most of his 28 years, and has also served stints as athletic director and a track assistant.
"I never anticipated staying here for 28 years," Quisno said, "mainly because nobody usually hangs around anywhere [coaching] for 28 years.
"But this is a great place to coach and it's been a great place to raise my kids and have them attend school. I've got some great friends here and I enjoy the small-town atmosphere."
Quisno and his wife, Becky, have a son, Adam, a former Rocket player who is in his second year of pharmacy school at Ohio State University, and daughters Mandy, a senior at Baldwin-Wallace, and Annie, 9.
Quisno's football family includes assistant coaches Tom Osborne, Bill Hubans, and Terry Harsha, who have been with him for most of his tenure, as have junior high coaches Ed Jordan and George Bergman. He counts them among his best friends, and he credits their longevity for the stability of the program.
To Quisno, coaching football is a passion but not an obsession. Oak Harbor is a good fit for him because of the small-town values of hard work and discipline.
"I don't think it consumes my life, but it's definitely something that drives me," Quisno said. "I think Friday-night high school football is the best event in sports. Football is America's game, and in high school it's played in its purest form."
Quisno was chosen among a number of coaches whose teams had excellent seasons.
In his first year at Whitmer, Palka, who previously coached prep teams at Summerfield, Mich, Bryan, and his alma mater, Central Catholic, took the Panthers to a 9-4 finish in the Division I regional final after they ended 2-8 last year.
Kidwell led Ross to a 10-0 regular season and a No. 6 final ranking in the D-I state poll in his third year with the Little Giants. Jacoby, who previously had a successful run at Mohawk, guided Lakota (7-3) to its first winning season in 15 years.
In his first year as Perrysburg's head coach, Kregel piloted the Yellow Jackets to an outright Northern Lakes League title after they were picked in the preseason to finish seventh. Also in his first year, Miller led Toledo Christian to an 8-2 mark after the Eagles ended at 3-7 in 2005.
- Steve Junga
First Published November 23, 2006, 12:44 p.m.
