100 Years of Football in the Berea City School District

LAKE ERIE LEAGUE

For a brief four years (1974-1978), Midpark and Berea were members of the venerable LEL. For all four football seasons, the Meteors and Braves were part of a 10-team conference that included east side schools Cleveland Heights, Garfield Heights, Shaker Heights, and Shaw, and west side schools Lakewood, Normandy, Parma, and Valley Forge.

By far, the most successful year in the LEL was the final season of 1978. Midpark and Berea had announced at the beginning of the season that they would be going elsewhere in 1979, but 1978 produced one of the most memorable seasons in local football history. Berea took the league title and in the process qualified for the state playoffs (for which the system had only been established six years earlier).

At the time, only four schools advanced to the playoffs in each division. For Class AAA (large schools), the four semifinalists in 1978 were Berea, Cincinnati Princeton, Sandusky, and Zanesville. Berea made it to the state finals by beating Zanesville 6-3 (in three overtimes!) at the Akron Rubber Bowl. The Braves’ opponent for the crown a week later was Princeton, who had edged Sandusky by a 13-11 score. Berea settled for the runner-up trophy, narrowly losing to Princeton 12-10 in the championship game at Dayton Welcome Stadium.

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