MANSFIELD — The high school football season may be over for area teams, but the lights will be blazing over one local venue this weekend.
Arlin Field will play host to the Division I, Region 1 semifinal between No. 2 seed Lakewood St. Edward (10-2) and No. 3 seed Westerville Central (11-1) on Saturday night. According to the Ohio High School Athletic Association, it will be the 60th playoff game the iconic stadium has hosted since the OHSAA began sponsoring the playoffs in 1972.
Arlin hosted a state semifinal game that first year and the 1980 Division V state championship game between Tiffin Calvert and Newark Catholic (Calvert won 22-0). LeBron James played his final high school football game here in Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Division IV state semifinal loss to Licking Valley in 2001. The following year, a Division V state semifinal between Smithville and Delphos St. John’s helped spur the debate between natural grass and artificial surface. Smithville won the game 27-20 in snow and freezing ankle-deep mud.
“When you look back on it, there is a lot of history here,” Mansfield Senior athletic director Skip Fulton said. “People think of us hosting games as a relatively recent development. They forget we’ve been hosting games here since the beginning.
“For this to be our 60th game, we’ve been at it for a long time.”
Arlin Field had hosted 57 playoff games prior to the start of the 2014 playoffs, tied for ninth on the list of most-used playoff venues with Zanesville Sulsberger Memorial Stadium.
It all started in 1972, the first year of the playoffs. Arlin Field was the site of a Class A (small school) state semifinal between Marion Pleasant and Zoarville Tuscarawas Valley. Pleasant won 36-14 and captured the Class A state title a week later with a 20-14 win over Lorain Clearview at Ohio Wesleyan University.
The playoff landscape from those early years looks nothing like the contemporary one. From 1972 to 1979, there were only three Divisions (AAA, AA, A) and four regions per division. Only one team from each region qualified for the playoffs, meaning only 12 teams in the entire state advanced to the postseason.
In 2013, when the OHSAA added a seventh division, the playoff field was expanded to include 224 teams.
Arlin Field hosted Class A state semifinals in 1973 and 1975 and a Class AA semifinal in 1979.
In 1980, the field was expanded to five divisions (Divisions I-V). There were still four regions in each division, but two teams from each region qualified, adding a third (regional championship) round to the playoff format.
Arlin Field hosted a Division V state semifinal in 1980 and played host to the state championship game the following week.
“There have been a lot of great games here,” Fulton said, “and a lot of great players have come through here.”
Derek Kidwell led Fostoria to a 36-6 win over Marysville in the Division II state semifinals in 1991. Kidwell would lead Fostoria to a state title and win the Mr. Football award along the way.
Maty Mauk, the 2011 Mr. Football award winner, piloted Kenton to a wild 30-28 win over Bishop Hartley in a Division IV regional championship game at Arlin Field, while 2012 Mr. Football Mitch Trubisky, the quarterback from Mentor, saw his season come to an end at Arlin Field in a 62-34 loss to Toledo Whitmer in a Division I state semifinal.
Then there was that November night in 2001 when a lanky junior wide receiver from Akron SVSM visited Mansfield. Licking Valley handed James and the Irish a 37-13 loss. James didn’t play football during his senior season.
“A lot of people remember LeBron playing a game here,” Fulton said.
Perhaps Arlin Field’s greatest asset is its location. Richland County sits at the confluence of the central, northwest and northeast districts.
“It certainly is a great location, especially when we have a central team playing either northeast or northwest teams or a northwest team playing a northeast team,” OHSAA assistant commissioner Beau Rugg said.
Rugg said the OHSAA loves the facility because of its proximity to U.S. 30 and I-71.
“They have plenty of parking and there is no track (surrounding the playing surface) so the stands are close to the field,” Rugg said. “The other thing that is a factor is the great work the game managers from Mansfield Senior do for us at these games.”
Preparing for a playoff game is like getting ready for a regular season home game — sort of.
“It’s like any Friday night game only on steroids,” Fulton said. “Three years ago we had Cleveland St. Ignatius and Toledo Whitmer in a state semifinal game and we had 9,000 people here.
“You have to have more game-day personnel, ticket sellers and ticket takers and parking attendants, and additional sideline security.”
It’s worth it, Fulton said.
“We enjoy hosting these games,” he said. “We appreciate the opportunity to showcase what we feel is the best high school football venue in this part of the state.”
