Home is where the heart is. And for head coach Don Griswold, his home resides at Keystone High School.
A former student and athlete at Keystone from 1991-1995, Griswold also has been the athletic director and an assistant coach for the Wildcats for the last six years. Griswold has been coaching under former head coach Rob Clarico, who ended his coaching career at Keystone following his thirteenth campaign.
“To be the head coach at Keystone is a neat thing. My parents moved out there (LaGrange) in the late eighties and we were hoping that the kids would like growing up there. It’s been home to me minus the three years I moved out to Arizona, I taught and coached out there. It’s amazing to see the plan God has had for my life. Since I’ve come back from Arizona, I’ve met my wife, we’ve had a kid, I’m the head coach, I was the athletic director. I have a blessed life certainly.”
To make things even better for Griswold, he’ll inherit a Keystone team that won six games last year. The one downside to last year’s 6-4 record is despite the positive record, the Wildcats finished the season on a three-game losing streak. Griswold looks to instill the mindset of finishing strong this season.
“We need to finish strong. We need to prevent some of the mental mistakes we made down the stretch. Really proud of the things we’ve done defensively over the last six years at Keystone. We play strong defense and it’s traditionally carried our teams with some smart balanced offense. So yeah, finish strong. But certainly, you have to get off to a hot start too. It’s always a balancing act. You got to start strong, you got to finish strong. To keep that fresh in a sixteen-year-old’s mind over ten regular season games and n the month of August takes skill certainly.”
A lot of the season rests in conference play and the Wildcats understand how tough the PAC-12 conference can be, especially in the Stars Division that Keystone resides in. The Wildcats went 2-3 in divisional play and their playoff hopes were thwarted by the likes of Wellington, Buckeye, and Firelands.
“I love the PAC-12 coference. I love that we have about the same problems, we have about the same kids. There our years when we’re up and someone else is down and vice versa.” Griswold mentioned while stating the importance of crossover games against Stripes Division foes Columbia, Buckeye, Black River, and Wellington.
For Keystone to continue to improve this season, look for players like quarterback Bobby Weber, lineman Matt Kelling, defensive end Jared Fable and the running back stable of Dylan Naylor, Cory Hartle, Justin Able and the brother-tandem of Jack and Cole Corraini to impress throughout the year.
Keystone has built a tough non-conference schedule again this year as always, as last year they met Division II State Finalist Cuyahoga Heights to open their season. Griswold talks about the importance of a tough schedule heading into conference play.
“We’re gonna continue that tradition. We’re gonna travel to Bay Week One and Week Three we travel to Norwayne, so our non-conference is tough. We’re gonna find out what kind of team we are real fast, see what kind of grit and what kind of ability we have and it’s exciting certainly. If you think you’re gonna be a playoff team, those kind of games will help you. If you’re not, at least you’re seasoned for the PAC. It accomplishes a lot of goals.
Keystone starts their season on the road against Bay this Friday.
*Keystone Wildcats 2017 Football Schedule*
Away 8/25 Bay
Home 9/1 Cloverleaf
Away 9/8 Norwayne
Home 9/15 Columbia
Away 9/22 Brooklyn
Home 9/29 Black River
Away 10/6 Brookside
Home 10/13 Wellington
Home 10/20 Buckeye
Away 10/27 Firelands
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