I first met David Phillips during his record-setting playing career at Mansfield Senior. I got reacquainted with him when he joined Chioke Bradley’s coaching staff during a golden era of Senior High football.

I couldn’t be more excited for Phillips, who will become Mansfield Senior’s head coach pending board approval.

At the same time, I can’t help but feel Antonio Fletcher, the man Phillips will succeed, wasn’t given a fair shake.

Fletcher was hired to replace Bradley, who stepped down after the 2024 season. The Tygers were 1-9 in Fletcher’s one season at the helm.

My sources tell me Fletcher was told he had been hired as an interim coach when his contract was non-renewed.

At no time during my reporting of Fletcher’s hiring was I told he was hired on an interim basis.

Maybe it’s my fault, because I didn’t ask. I didn’t ask because coaches aren’t hired on an interim basis.

Fletcher is the first Senior High football coach to go one-and-done in more than 50 years. Sam Miller was head coach of the program for one season in 1973.

I can’t help but think Fletcher was set up to fail. He wasn’t hired until April, a mere four months before the 2025 season kicked off.

Anyone who knows anything about high school football in north central Ohio knew the Tygers were in the early stages of a major rebuild last year. When the media voted on preseason conference polls in August, Senior High was picked to finish last in the Ohio Cardinal Conference.

I picked Mansfield Senior to finish sixth in the seven-team OCC. The one team I picked the Tygers to beat was Wooster. Senior High knocked off the Generals in Week 8.

What’s more, the Tygers played a non-conference schedule built for a veteran team, not one trying to find its footing. It included two Division I opponents (Hilliard Davidson, Canton GlenOak) and an emerging Division III powerhouse (Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph).

This year’s schedule still includes Davidson, but VASJ and GlenOak are gone. The Tygers will play Division II Watkins Memorial in Week 3 and OCC newcomer Dover in Week 9.

It’s a schedule better suited for a program in Senior High’s situation. Fletcher had a hand in putting it together.

Everyone in town is excited about the incoming freshman class — and with good reason. The Class of 2030 was undefeated in football and basketball the last two years.

The coach of that outfit was none other than Phillips, who has two sons in the class.

As talented as they are, the incoming freshmen probably aren’t ready to lead the Tygers back to prominence in 2026. 

The last time a freshman class arrived with this much fanfare was the fall of 2016. That group included Angelo Grose and Anthony Hawkins among others and they were immediately inserted into the starting lineup.

Senior High finished 6-4, tied for third in the OCC and missed the playoffs that year. And the only reason they won six games was because Brian Benson, the career rushing king and arguably the greatest running back in program history, rushed for 2,038 yards and 27 touchdowns. 

Benson was a generational talent. He helped cover up a lot of mistakes made by those heralded freshman.

Former Senior High coach Stan Jefferson once told me you can count on one loss for every freshman you play. In fact, the only freshman I can recall playing during the latter stages of Jefferson’s Hall of Fame coaching career was Jamario O’Neal, who went on to play for Jim Tressel at Ohio State.

The incoming freshmen are supremely talented, but they aren’t going to resurrect the program overnight. It’s going to take time.

Hopefully Phillips will be given the time that Fletcher wasn’t.