High school football: Avon has sustained excellence over the past decade

BRUNSWICK — Avon has reached a level of consistency many programs strive for, but few achieve. In the last decade, the Eagles have 10 conference titles, nine straight regional final appearances, eight regional titles and a Division II state championship. And there's still room for more in their ever-expanding trophy case. "I honestly try not to look at it holistically," Avon coach Mike Elder said. "But I will tell you that this is definitely surreal. We always talk about how we want to be a good program, not a good team. That means when you come to our practices you see our young guys getting reps right now. When practice is over, we're staying an extra 10 minutes and working on next year's team. So these deep runs help us develop our young kids and hopefully we get them excited to play football for us some day." In 2016, Division II, Region 4 was renamed to Region 6 because Division I expanded to four regions. It's hard to believe, but Avon's first Region 6 game it played ended in arguably its toughest postseason loss when rival Avon Lake went into its stadium as a No. 8 seed and pulled off a 27-26 upset in the quarterfinals, ending Avon's perfect season. The Eagles have dominated Region 6 ever since, winning the title eight out of the last nine years and reaching the final every season during that span. On Friday, it was more of the same, a 36-19 win against Medina Highland, ending the Hornets' season in the regional final for the third straight season. Avon is 31-1 in regional playoff games since 2017. The only team to beat the Eagles during that span was Toledo Central Catholic, which won the 2022 Division II state championship. But the Irish moved down to Division III after that season, and nobody has been able to keep up since. Highland and Olmsted Falls have come the closest. The Hornets lost by eight in 2024 and 14 in 2023 while the Bulldogs lost by 10 in 2023 and 17 in 2024. Every other game has been decided by 20 or more points. "It's expected," senior wide receiver Grant Barr said. "We know that we're good and this is what's expected of us. We're expected to win, and if we don't it's a surprise to us. We know we have to work very hard to keep that going." Avon is looking to become the second team from Lorain County to defend its state title, joining Elyria Catholic (1983-84). The 1977 Panthers and 2004 Shoremen are the only other defending champions to reach the state final. The Eagles have won their last 28 games against teams from Ohio, but their overall winning streak was snapped in Week 2 when it traveled to Florida and lost to Spruce Creek, 25-22. Avon has 10 trips to the state Final 4, finished runnerup in 2011 and won the state title in 2024. It has reached the playoffs in 16 straight seasons and 18 overall. Prior to 2017, the Eagles were a strong local program that was looking to establish its dominance at the regional level. Highland's only win against Avon since 2011 came in the 2013 regional final, a game senior quarterback Blake Elder said he still remembers watching as a kid. Even though he was nine years away from high school, he said that loss motivated him. "It's crazy how consistent we are," Blake Elder said. "This program, it builds you into young men and great football players. I'm super proud of this program and the consistency we have. People might think you'd get old of it, but this feeling never gets old. It's amazing." It's not like Avon is doing it in a weak league, either. The Southwestern Conference has produced four other regional finalists in the last 10 years — Olmsted Falls (2016-17) and Avon Lake (2019-20). Yet, as great as Olmsted Falls has been, it's 0-19 against Avon under Mike Elder and were eliminated from the playoffs at the hands of the Eagles for the fifth straight season. "It's awesome," junior center Jack Fitch said. "From a little kid growing up and seeing all the success we've had, you always want to be that person who's playing on that team. Now that we're all finally here, it's just awesome. Our coaches are amazing, they're the reason we keep going." Since joining the SWC in 2015, Midview is the only other team to win the league outright, doing so in the inaugural season of competition for both teams. The Eagles have won 10 straight titles, eight of them outright. They shared the championship with Avon Lake in 2018 and Olmsted Falls in 2021. Avon Lake is the only SWC team to beat Avon multiple times — 2016 (playoffs), 2018 and 2021. Midview is the only other team to record a win, doing so in 2015. The Eagles are undefeated against the rest of the league, which until 2020 included Lakewood and until 2021 included Westlake and North Olmsted. "We've built this program up from brick with Coach Elder," senior offensive guard Braden Patrick said. "He's made this such a great program. We take it one step at a time and collect moments with each other. At the end of the day, this is about getting to spend another week with each other. A lot of teams set a goal to win a state championship, but our goal is just to spend another week with each other." Contact Chris Sweeney at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com. Follow him @CSweeney1686 on X.