Former Tiffin Columbian football player and Huron assistant coach Chris MacFarland looks to stop the bleeding of three decades of losing at NHS.

 

NORWALK- Many have tried to turn around Norwalk’s downtrodden football program over the past three decades. Eight different head coaches, to be exact.

Monday afternoon at a special work session, the Norwalk City Schools Board of Education selected the man who they hope ends that drought as Chris MacFarland, a 1987 Tiffin Columbian graduate who got his start as an assistant football coach at Huron 18 years ago, becomes the ninth different head coach in 28 seasons at the Northern Ohio League school.

MacFarland is the 19th head coach in program history dating back 91 years.

After his hiring was made official, MacFarland had a message for his new players and community.

“I want Norwalk football on their mind 365 days a year,” MacFarland said. “We need them to buy into the program and be committed to it and what has to be in our minds every day, all year long is Norwalk football.

“I will stress the kids play other sports because you learn how to compete in those other sports and anytime you can support your school it is tremendous, but the weight room will still be going full tilt.”

MacFarland has been the head coach at Division I Cincinnati Western Hills of the Cicinnati Metro Atheltic Conference for the past two seasons, which is the same conference as state powerhouse Cincinnati Elder. Western Hills also has taken on such non-conference foes as Cincinnati Princeton, Massillon Washington and Dayton Dunbar.

MacFarland’s team finished 1-9 in 2007 and improved by three games to 4-6 last season.

He began his teaching and coaching career in 1991 at Huron High School where he was also the head wrestling coach along with an assistant football coach on Tony Legando’s staff. At Huron he was part of a state runnerup Tiger team that lost in the state championship game to Versailles in 1993.

After five years at Huron, MacFarland moved to South Carolina where he was an assistant coach for the next seven years at Greer and Greenville Wade Hampton where he was a part of six playoff appearances in those seven years.
With the birth of their third child, the MacFarland and his wife Christina wanted to come back to Ohio to be closer to family and he accepted a job in 2006 as the defensive coordinator at Cincinnati Aiken High School for one season before being offered and taking the job at Western Hills.

MacFarland also talked about the obvious, which is the fact that he was just nine years old the last time the Truckers had a winning season in 1977 and since that span they’ve won just 78 of 310 games played for a .253 winning percentage, by far the worst in the NOL.

“Knowing the schedule and the schools we play, the biggest thing I’ll strive to do is build a program,” he said. “It’s the only way I know growing up in Tiffin in and working with Tony (Legando) in Huron. I feel like I’ve only seen the right way to run programs, which is through hard work by not only the athletes but the coaching staff.

“The bottom line is the offseason program is a must. We have to be in the weight room and work on speed and agility. The game has gotten bigger and faster and we need to stay with it. Looking from the outside in that seems to be the situation here. Kids like change, but they also have to know it is going in right direction. That will come from dedication and commitment from my staff and I to create an atmosphere that they will want to be in there and be part of it. If you look at Bellevue and Columbian, it’s no secret they win because they put the time in and do little things to be successful.”

Being from Columbian and coaching at Huron, who has played Norwalk consecutively for 53 straight years, the 40-year old MacFarland talked about what drew him to the Trucker job.

“The biggest thing for me was the atmosphere there in the community,” he said. “It’s a great city with excellent education ratings and facilities at the high school…it has the things to go along with a program that you’re striving to get. It has that small town feel that everyone is always looking for and I’m excited about the opportunity.”

MacFarland will stress three principles before deciding what particular offense and defense to run.

“Three things I believe in are running the football, playing great defense and having solid special teams. If we address those things, we’ll be a successful program. I want to run a multi-set offense to take advantage of what they give me. I always want to establish a run, but that don’t mean you need to do it 40 times a game, but it will be main emphasis.

“I’m familiar with a very aggressive 4-4 defense, as I’m a zone guy and like to bring a lot of pressure. Special teams will be apart of every day practice in making sure we’re working on it because more often than not it can be a game changer for a positive or negative. My biggest thing is, I’ve got to adjust to the athletes I have. I can’t force them to be something their not. But if we do those things, we’ll be successful.”

Since finishing 7-3 in the 1977 season, the Trucker program has long been the worst in the area in compiling a 78-231-1 mark with just six top-half finishes in the NOL.

Norwalk is one of just three area schools with a state football championship, however. They went 11-1 and won the Class AA title in 1974 and, from 1974-77, compiled a 33-9 record with the school’s only two NOL titles in 1974 and 1976.