Page 10 - Dresden Buzz 06-28-24

PAGE 10 | SPORTS JUNE 28 - JULY 11, 2024
Tri-Valley Scottie Football History… by Gregg Meadows

The First TVHS Scottie football team - from the fall of 1966 (Class of 1967). Front row: (l-r) Tim Holt, Jim Grimes, Terry Graves, Roy Preston, Allen Minnich, John Eckstein, Terry Morgan,
Tim Riley, Ron Riggle, Tom Priest, Jake Cronin, Terry Clark, and Jim Little. Second row: Frank Scott, Dave Knicely, Dennis Miller, Dave Sheets, Roger Thomas, Tim Nichols, Kari Kessler, Tom
Starner, John Swank, Bill Bice, Mike Bebout, Steve Evec, Frank Felix, Jerry Moore, and Darryl Miller. Third row: Asst Coaches Ron Glass and Sam Andy, Mike King, Dave Leisure, Jon Roberts,
Rich Robison, Art Wagner, Larry Shesky, John Hindel, Tim Fell, Bill Roberts, Tom Fell, Clarence Green, Steve Roberts, Rick Bunting, Tom Aronhalt, Clarence Sidwell, Dave Duffy, and David
Hockenberry. from the 1967 TVHS Yearbook

a Scottie football program that in its football coach, Justin Buttermore’s leg-
Hopes are high for the upcoming season for fifth-year Tri-Valley football coach Cam 38-year existence, had just one claim acy was complete, and his legendary
West and his Scotties, who return a majority of starters at the skill positions, and on both to fame - its 1989 Muskingum Valley status retained for as long as they play
sides of the line of scrimmage as well, from last year’s 9-3 MVL title team. League gridiron title - and was known football at Jack Anderson Stadium.
So what better time than to take a capsuled look at Tri-Valley football history, through as ‘the football team from a basketball Kevin Fell took over for Coach Justin
the eyes of someone who has seen, played, and reported on Scottie pigskin exploits for all school”. Buttermore at the beginning of the 2018
but three years of the school’s 58-year existence, Dresden Buzz Sports contributor Gregg For the record – up until the Butter- football season. Fell came in with a ca-
Meadows. more hire - Scottie football owned a 158- reer coaching mark that included 273
Meadows will also be contributing additional TVHS Sports history articles to the Dres- 212-8 record (an average of under five career wins and a state title with Del-
den Buzz through the remainder of the summer months. wins per season in its near four decades phos Jefferson back in 1986. In his first
of existence at Muskingum County’s big- season in Dresden, he took the Scotties
gest school) starting with the school’s into yet another playoff season with a
In the fall of 1966, three school sys- 22-2 record in his five seasons at TVHS. first football team in the fall of 1966 10-2 record, and an MVL title, then led
tems - in alphabetical order, Adamsville, Veteran football coach and Zanes- thru the fall of 2003’s third straight 2-8 TV to a 7-3 record in his second season
Dresden and Frazeysburg, came togeth- ville native William Damsel proved to be mark. before retiring from the coaching ranks
er as one to form the Tri-Valley School a one-year wonder for Tri-Valley football, Buttermore’s Scotties had a brief, in the offseason after two years in Dres-
District, under the leadership of Super- leading the Scotties to a respectable 6-4 two-year ‘maturation period’, going 3-7 den.
intendent Norbert Kurtz, and legendary season in the fall of 1974, his only sea- and 4-6 in his first two seasons. TVHS Athletic Hall of Famer Camer-
principal Jack Anderson - the former son in Dresden. But in his third season, in the fall on West was named head football coach
Jefferson High School principal - whose Damsel gave way to another Zanes- of 2006, it all fell into place, with the for the Scotties in 2020 to replace Kevin
name is on our football stadium. ville product the following year, Ken school’s first winning football season in Fell. During his time as quarterback at
John Krichbaum was tasked with ‘Butch’ Wilson, who guided the Tri-Valley 13 years - and most significantly - it’s TVHS, Coach West guided Tri-Valley to
handling the head coaching duties of football program for four seasons, head- first-ever OHSAA state playoff appear- their first playoff appearance (2006)
the first Tri-Valley football team, as ex- ing the Scottie gridiron classes of 1976- ance, when the Scotties faced pigskin and playoff win (2007).
citement was high in the Tri-Valley area 79. powerhouse Dover in ‘Week 11’ (an un- West, who earned All-Ohio acco-
for the first season of Scotties football. In the fall of 1979, Tri-Valley wel- heard phrase at TVHS up until then) on lades as a player in football and base-
The personable Coach Krichbaum comed back a familiar face, Jim Kaser, the Tornadoes fabled Crater Stadium ball at TVHS, continued his winning
would lead the Scotties for their first who was a former assistant at Tri-Valley. field. ways after high school. He spent four
three gridiron seasons, enjoying his best Coach Kaser enjoyed a 19-year stay in Despite the disappointing 49-14 years as a defensive back at Division III
year in his final season in the fall of Dresden, winning 91 games and guiding defeat (starting Scottie junior QB stand- power Mount Union, where he earned
1968, leading TVHS to a record of 6-3-1. the Scotties to several winning seasons, out Cam West left the game in the first his degree in education. After college,
In the fall of 1969, Jerry Porteus including the Scottie’s first MVL title sea- quarter with a hip injury) the wheels Coach West eventually made his way
would become the second head football son of 1989, when 9-1 Tri-Valley finished had been set in motion for what would back to Dresden where he became a fix-
coach of the Scotties, leading the Scot- the season atop the Muskingum Valley be a meteoric rise of the Tri-Valley foot- ture on Coach Justin Buttermore’s staff.
ties for five seasons including the 1971 League pigskin standings for the first ball program that would also rejuvenate During his tenure as an assistant coach
season, which saw the sad passing of time in school history. a football-starved community in Scot- at Tri-Valley, West was inducted into the
TVHS principal Jack Anderson, just one Coach Kaser’s near 20-year tenure tieland. school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016
month into the new school year. The at Tri-Valley was followed by a three year Starting with the 2006 season’s and helped guide the Scotties to a State
likeable Coach Porteus compiled a 30- stay by the two-platoon and offensive- ‘turnaround’ 8-3 squad, the gridiron Runner-Up finish in 2017.
minded Rick Sharp, who guided Scot- Scotties would dominate play in the Coach West enters his fifth season
tie football through the 1998, 99, and Muskingum Valley League for the next this fall at the helm of Scotties football.
2000 seasons, then a one-year visit as 11 seasons. In his first four seasons in Dresden, he
head coach - back to his alma mater - Coach Buttermore’s Scottie charges guided his teams to 8-2, 8-3, 9-3, and
by Darrin Waters for the 2001 season. amassed an incredible 90-6 record in 9-3 records with MVL titles earned in
Waters short stay was followed by a two- conference play, (which included a 47- 2021, and last season, when his grid-
year stint as head coach for the 2002 game Muskingum Valley League win ironers earned the school’s 13th confer-
and 2003 seasons by the versatile Erin streak) nine league titles, (including ence pigskin title, captured a Week 11
Nezbeth, who now has Tri-Valley athlet- the last seven) 10 playoff appearances post season win at Jack Anderson Sta-
ics covered from A to Z as the school’s (with an overall 12-10 post season re- dium over Buckeye Valley, then dropped
most capable athletic director at Musk- cord), which was all capped by the 2017 a Week 12 nail-biter and heartbreaker
ingum County’s largest school. season’s magical 13-2 season and state to host Granville.
In February of 2004, in a long-await- runner-up finish, when Tri-Valley came And that’s a brief history of Tri-Valley
ed effort toward improving its football within a whisker of a state title after football – stay tuned!
program, the Tri-Valley School Board of their 27-19 defeat at the hands of Trot-
Education - spearheaded by the enthu- wood Madison in the state champion-
siastic and knowledgeable efforts of Su- ship game at the Pro Football Hall of
perintendent Doug Spade - approved the Fame’s Tom Benson Stadium.
hiring of 27-year old Justin Buttermore. You will get no doubters when stat-
Buttermore came to Dresden with no ing that Justin Buttermore indeed built ADVERTISE IN THE DRESDEN BUZZ.
head coaching experience, but an estab- an MVL football dynasty in Dresden dur- 740-270-2408
lished football pedigree – as a player, ing his 14-year tenure.
John Krichbaum, 1st TVHS Scottie Football and as an assistant coach. With that, and a final career record
Coach from the 1967 TVHS Yearbook Buttermore was tabbed to head of 124-38 as the Tri-Valley Scottie head