Ken James enters his 26th season at the helm of the Northwood High School football program. He has led the Rangers to playoffs berths in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2009, and 2010, and has a career record of 132-125. The Rangers have compiled a 51-4 mark in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference since joining the league in 2001 and have won seven championships. Northwood was playing in the Suburban Lakes League when he took over, and his 1991 team shared the title with Elmwood. He grew up in Waynesfield, Ohio, and was an all-league lineman in high school, then played one season at Bluffton College. In 1982, he started coaching at Lima Bath, and he then spent three years at Lima Central Catholic before moving to Northwood where he has been teaching English and/or history for 25 years. He also was briefly head coach of the Ohio Cannon, a local semipro football team that did not complete its one and only season in 1999. James has been married to his wife, Kris, for 27 years. They have three adult children: Ben, Nathan, and Chelsea.
What is your coaching philosophy? I still believe that football is a game that involves imposing your will on your opponent, which is why our program is still based on running the ball and stopping the run.
What are some of your most memorable games? My wife says that I have all games I've coached embedded in my memory from watching them dozens of times each. But some that stand out are the Eastwood game of 1987. We lost to an undefeated Eastwood squad 22-19, but that was the point at which our players started to seriously buy in to our program. The Elmwood game in 1991. We won 8-2. The Lake game from 1996: We had a two-touchdown lead with under a minute to play and we had to stop a two-point conversion to win 29-27. Our playoff win against Edgerton in 2003 -- and last year's Lake game. The build-up around it created all sorts of unusual emotions.
Who are the best players you coached against? The one who used to scare the heck out of me was Shaun Downey of Otsego. Blaine Maag from Columbus Grove; Dave Mason from Gibsonburg; DeAndre DeScott from Cleveland South; and Nate Kmic from Delta were also exceptional.
What are the main differences between the game when you started and now? Summer programs and seven-on-seven competitions have made the passing elements of football much more sophisticated and much more popular, and consequently, spread offenses are everywhere. Also, athletes generally today are physically more advanced than they were when I first started coaching.
What do you like most about Friday football nights? The competition. Also, football is a family activity for us. My son, Nate, coaches our defensive backs and Chelsea manages the managers; my wife, Kris, keeps stats and is on the sidelines with the rest of the team. Most weeks, Ben, who played for the Rangers from 1997-2000, and Megan, his wife, are there too.
Why do you like to work with high school athletes? No matter how old I get, the people I work with stay the same age. It makes me feel young. I also enjoy watching athletes develop. It's pretty exciting to see what someone can do with a lot of hard work and a little direction.
Do you have any good behind-the-scenes stories? One of the best stories is from 1988. We started the year with shut-out wins over Fostoria St. Wendelin and Danbury. In preparation for our week 3 contest against local-rival Ottawa Hills, our defensive coordinator Paul Gercak promised the defensive players Oreos if we managed another shutout. We entered the locker room at halftime down 25-21. We came back and won the game 40-25, but the Oreos did not survive the halftime speech. Players from that team still bring up the Oreos whenever I see them.
Tell me about your involvement with the Ohio Cannon? The Cannon was operated like a Little League team: Paychecks for players changed from week to week; traveling conditions were unusual, at best; and the team folded before it completed one season. However, the players were first-class individuals, many of whom were trying to get a shot at the NFL and would do anything to make that dream come true. My first game was a preseason game against the Shreveport team in the stadium where the Independence Bowl is played. Our coaching staff consisted of an administrative assistant, a pancake salesman, a retired airport security guard, and me. I gazed across the field and saw Fred Akers, former Texas and Purdue head coach, and several former NFL and college assistant coaches. At that point, I thought, "How did I get myself into this mess?"
What do you see yourself doing in five years? If my health is good, I plan to still be teaching and coaching. I enjoy my life in the classroom; I enjoy all the aspects of my coaching duties, and my wife says that if I'm not working, my hobbies are much too expensive. I do enjoy golf. I also have a '41 Chevy street rod and like tinkering with old cars.
And finally, tell us something nobody knows about you? In high school, I planned to go to college to become an architect. My high school coach, Chip Hollenback, convinced me that teaching and coaching would be a good option for me, and 32 years later, I'm still following his advice.
First Published August 14, 2011, 4:15 a.m.
