Owens Elected to AFCA Board of Trustees

[InTheZone]

I know a lot of you shudder at the mention of the name of our former and my former head coach but i thought some of you might find this interesting....http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/apps/p...010325/0/NEWS01ASHLAND -- A multi-million dollar stadium is in the planning stages at Ashland University, but the school doesn't have to break ground on such a project for football coach Lee Owens to feel like he's moved into the high-rent district.By vote of his peers, Owens was named along with Mack Brown of Texas and National Coach of the Year Jim Grobe of Wake Forest to the American Football Coaches Association Board of Trustees. The announcement, made at the AFCA national convention in San Antonio last month, left Owens dumbfounded. "I don't make enough money to sit with that group," he joked, referring to Brown, Grobe and fellow board members like Ohio State's Jim Tressel, Auburn's Tommy Tuberville and West Virginia's Rich Rodriguez. "It's a great honor and a great reflection on our school." The board formulates policy and provides direction for the AFCA, whose founding fathers include Amos Alonzo Stagg and John Heisman. The organization has more than 10,000 members from all levels of the profession.Owens is one of only two NCAA Division II coaches on the 17-member board. The other is incoming president Ken Sparks of Carson-Newman College. Third vice-president is Larry Kehres of D-III power Mount Union."For me to get a chance to be around Larry Kehres and Jim Tressel ... if I can win half as much as those guys, it will be good for (AU)," Owens said, modestly. "I think our league (the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, home to reigning national champion Grand Valley State) has a lot of credibility."While joining one exclusive fraternity, Owens is also helping to establish another.Ashland has formed a Gridiron Club of former Eagle players, alumni, coaches and friends of the university who share a common interest in advancing the football program through a variety of activities, including:Financially supporting the program with annual gifts.Planning and promoting social events, such as Alumni Day, tailgate parties, an annual football banquet and alumni golf outing.Assisting current players and alumni in obtaining internship and employment opportunities.Serving as a role model for current players by advocating good sportsmanship, academic excellence and social responsibility.Willard resident Donald Graham, Class of 1969, has been selected as the organization's first president. Colonel Crawford graduate Matthew "Bubba" Harris, Class of '97, is secretary and former All-American and Northmor graduate Bill Royce, Class of '93, is one of the officers. Hall of Fame coach Dr. Fred Martinelli is an honorary officer."I think it's important for us as a group to do everything we can to help Ashland University football players be successful on the field and in their lives after football," Graham said in a statement. "The club is made up of members from different eras of Ashland football and through our members we can help provide perspective to the players, coaches and administrators."Our goal is to help Ashland's football program reach the championship level."Membership in the Gridiron Club is $250, which includes special parking at home games and other perks. The club is also sponsoring alumni football lockers for $1,000, payable over three years. A plaque will be displayed on each locker occupied by a current player with the alum's name, number, position played and years of participation. Each benefactor will receive a miniature locker to display in home or office.The funds generated through the locker sponsorship program will be set aside for capital expenditures. The annual dues of the Gridiron Club will support the operating budget of the football program."Ralph Tomassi (associate vice president for development) is always looking for ways to support the program and we had a Gridiron Club when I was head coach at Akron, so we put our heads together," Owens said. "The feedback has been pretty good. It's a good grassroots group to help us get up and going."Of course, Owens is always looking for ways to improve the product on the field as well. After going 9-2 in 2005 to earn Owens coach of the year honors in the GLIAC, the Eagles slumped to 4-6 last season. A defense that went from being one of the best in D-II in scoring defense two years ago (107 points) gave up more than twice as many points last season (244).In hopes of halting that slide, the fourth-year head coach has shuffled his staff. One of the new faces is defensive coordinator Nick Toth, who filled the same role last season at GLIAC rival Mercyhurst. The team will keep the 3-4 defense, which Toth has both played and coached in.Key returnees, with local ties, will include guard Reggie Gamble (Mansfield Senior), wide receivers David Ziegelhofer (Lexington) and Brandon Gilmore (Madison), linebacker Josh Ohl (Ontario), tailback Ryan O'Dell (Crestview) and kicker Ryan Jung (Clear Fork).Although national signing day isn't until Feb. 7, the roster has already grown with the addition of three D-I transfers: linebacker Brandon Butler (Akron), son of former NFL linebacker and ex-Cleveland Browns assistant Keith Butler; defensive back Dre Ratliff (Marshall), brother of Cincinnati Bengal Keiwan Ratliff; and cornerback Chance Smith (Illinois State).The Cleveland Plain Dealer has also reported that former Ohio State recruit and Glenville product Darius Hiley will enroll at AU. The wide receiver/safety spent one year playing junior college ball and last year at Columbus State after leaving the Buckeyes."The great Division I-AA and Division II programs always get a handful of transfers because they recruit Division I guys," said Owens, who reeled in linebacker/end Chad Hoobler (Ohio State) and quarterbacks Billy Cundiff (U Conn) and John Ferguson (Akron) by going that route. "A couple of Grand Valley State's top players this season were transfers."But Owens also acknowledges that bringing in some transfers in the middle of fall camp last season messed with team chemistry."With some guys coming in late, underclassmen lost their jobs and that created some morale problems that we've addressed as a team," Owens said. "No promises have been made. We're still going to play the best players, but (the transfers) need to get in here in the spring."We've learned a lot of lessons from last season and aren't going to make the same mistakes. We were talking playoffs and national championships before we had even won the conference. We might have had more talent top-to-bottom here last year than ever, but we underestimated chemistry. And you can never lose sight of how important it is to be tough, especially on the defensive side of the ball."

[you am i]

good for lee owens. i always thought he was a class act.

[skip-zip]

I say the same thing....congratulations. I don't make a point to bash the guy personally. Really, the biggest problem I have with the Lee Owens era was that my alma mater let him stay as long as they did when it was clear the program wasn't making progress.

[Z-P]

I think Lee will be great on this board. His political and social skills are really unsurpassed.Good Luck Coach!

[timmyboy]

I thought that lee was a very nice guy and more of a players coach. i had the chance to meet him my senior year when i took a few visits to the campus an he was always a class guy, so i think he will be great for the board

[ZipAlumn]

good for lee owens. i always thought he was a class act.

I never met Lee Owens but I do know that every high school coach that I do know (about a dozen) has nothing but good to say about him. They all think he got a raw deal from Akron.

[ZipsWin!'s Roommate]

"They all think he got a raw deal from Akron. "With that being said, the coaches that you know must accept mediocre play by mediocre players being coached by mediocre coaches. Lee Owens is widely known as a class act, but putting together a winning program at The U. of A. was not in the works for him and his coaching staffs - they clearly were given too much time to put it together.

[akronad]

Congrats to Lee!! Nothing but a class individual. However, he didn't bring us to the PROMISED LAND, which is what every coach is hired to do. It is the natural of the beast.Things didn't work out for with Akron, but that doesn't meanhe isn't and cannot be a good coach at another school (Ashland). Again, congrats!!!!!!!

[Blue & Gold]

They all think he got a raw deal from Akron.

I don't know why they'd think this, if they have any information to go on. The program was at best stuck in neutral, and stuck in neutral at a pretty low level at that.But I like LeeO as a person. I met him a few times and he's a very gregarious, friendly guy. Good family man and a good role model for his players.

[skip-zip]

Roomate...Blue and Gold...you are exactly right. How can anyone think Lee got a raw deal? He had a job for 8 years as a D-1 coach, despite moving the program nowhere. If I were him, I would consider myself fortunate. And I do wish him the best of luck. I've never heard a bad thing about him as a person.

[Z-P]

Raw deal? No, not really.When a coach comes into a program at our level (base level for D1A guys) he has a very short time within which to "play all his cards"................by that I mean bring in assistants he knows can get results, and pull in recruits he knows he can "lead' into his program "on the come".............think Urban Myers at BG (whom Lee beat BTW at BG).Lee took his best shot, and it didn't work out. He did some exciting things, but became burned out seeing his best staff guys quit and go elsewhere (think Joe Palmisano and the two guys who went to UM and their names slip me), and his top recruits either flunk out, get kicked out or just plain bail out of a college education. (Think Butter Smith and Kyle Fromholtz)It was time.............He's still tops in my book on the personal side, and I will always "be on his team" in that regard...........to repeat myself, buenos suerte Coach!