Episode 27 | Historic 2025 Football Season

This episode of the Fairview Advantage Podcast highlights the Fairview High School football team’s historic 2025 season and the culture behind its success. 

Featuring student-athletes, head coach Sean Ranc, and athletic director Jon Adams, the conversation explores how leadership, accountability, and steady program growth led to milestones like a conference championship and the program’s first playoff win. 

Players reflect on their development both on and off the field, emphasizing teamwork, maturity, and strong relationships built through shared experiences. Looking ahead, the group discusses goals for continued success and building on a culture that extends beyond football. Featuring FHS athletes LaMarcus C. and Cal R.

Transcript

Announcer: 0:01

Welcome to the Fairview advantage podcast, the official podcast of the Fairview Park City, school district. The Fairview advantage podcast takes a closer look at the students, teachers, staff and programs that make up our school community. We've got unique stories to share, highlighting, creativity, innovation, collaboration and leadership, all part of the Fairview advantage, our framework for student success. To learn more about us, visit our website@fairviewparkschools.org or find us on social media today, and now here's this week's episode. Thanks for

Unknown: 0:55

joining us for another episode of Fairview advantage podcast. My name is Dan Rajkovich. I'm the Communications and Marketing Coordinator here at the Fairview Park City Schools, and today we're going to talk about our outstanding football season that happened this fall. And joining us are two juniors from the team. Are Marcus Clark and Cal Reese LaMarcus, the running back outside linebacker for the Warriors, and Cal's one of our wide receivers and cornerbacks, and we're also joined today with head coach Sean Rance and athletic director Mr. John Adams. So to kind of put this all into reference for everybody, we've collected some statistics from the 2025 season here. So I'm just going to go ahead and read it off. We finished the regular season with an eight and two record. You can tell me coach, if any of this is incorrect, okay, it's our first it's the Warriors first back to back winning seasons since 1968 and 1969 which is awesome. It's our first conference championship since 2011 and we did that with a win versus Brooklyn, 42 to six on October the 17th. We averaged over 40 points a game, which is pretty good. We hosted our first ever home playoff game, and that was against the Frederick town Freddy's on Halloween, which had to be pretty sweet, to play on Halloween. Won that game 51 to 41 we had 16 all conference selections. 12 players were named to the Division five all district team coach Rance was named not only the CVC conference coach of the year, but the Division five northeast lakes district Coach of the Year. And Burke Lowery was named the CBC MVP in the Northeast lakes Division five Offensive Player of the Year. So we had a pretty awesome season in football coach. We're just going to get right into it, kind of, you know, it's and I've talked to Mr. Adams about this, and you guys too, right? It's an exciting time right now in Fairview athletics. Just across the board for you, what has been some of the key building blocks over the past few seasons that have led to the success the past few seasons? I think one of the biggest keys is there's a lot of student athlete led leadership. It's not coming from the coach's office or the head coach or the coordinators anymore, the seniors and then these juniors, and particularly, really led the team, and they held all the other players to a higher standard. And once that happens, that's when a program really starts rolling. Was there a turning point or, like something that happened, maybe in the past couple of seasons where you kind of felt this shift in the team, or was it kind of just a steady, gradual kind of thing. It's been a steady growth the past. You know, I've been just finished my sixth season here. It's hard to say, but it's been a steady growth. But two years ago, their freshman year, the current seniors, sophomore year, we were one and nine, but we were in a lot of really, really close games. We got a new weight room. We revamped our weight program. The kids bought in, and they just said, we're not going to be a losing program anymore. Had a successful 24 lost in the first round, and then going into this season, it was just no other option besides winning a championship, hosting a playoff game, winning a playoff game, they all took it to heart, and obviously we were able to accomplish a lot of those goals. You know, kind of, you just mentioned it kind of, what was the role in the last year's playoff appearance that made this year's success even greater? Get it just like, yeah, being there, getting a taste of it. There's, there's nothing better than week 11, week 12, football, week 13 and beyond. Hopefully we can get to coming up this season in the state of Ohio. You know, the weather is changing. I might be biased, but football is king in Northeast Ohio, and really Ohio in general, to get there and just see the community. I mean, when we walked out for special teams out at Liberty, Benton and. We had a nice big crowd already there, tailgating an hour and 45 minutes away. You know, it's fun, but then, you know, that sting of defeat. We didn't want that again. You know, in the first round, we wanted to make history, and, you know, win a playoff game, which had never been done in the 97 years of Fairview football. So we were able to get that done, which was awesome. You know, what makes this particular group of players special. I mean, it's again, you've, you've kind of seen their growth charted over the last few seasons here. And you know, how have your leaders, and we've talked about this, you know, both, maybe quietly or not so quietly, helped shape the past few seasons, and especially this season. Yeah, it's been on the field. It's been incredible. You know, Burke Lowry, who holds every single quarterback record here, started week five as a freshman, so seeing his growth. You know, both these guys next to me lettered as freshmen, seeing how putting players that probably shouldn't be in yet because they're young into the game, taking their lumps and learning from and growing has been amazing to watch. You know, now you win some games. More players come out. You know, our youth programs rolling, but really, just seeing the growth as a player on the field for these guys has been really special. You know, the next question I had is, you know, what makes you the most proud of something that doesn't show up on the scoreboard? Is it that, that that doesn't show up really in football in general, is how these guys gel in the locker room in the off season, doing a lot of things that we had a the wreck, had some youth night on a summer night, and most of our team shows up to be with these kids before some football movie that they did, the older guys taking the younger guys under their wings, making sure when they're going out to breakfast after a camp day or something, just there's really no clicks in that locker room anymore. And that's what I think makes this team special. But just them growing as people and becoming leaders are just going to go a lot farther in life than just what happens on the football field here. I'm going to go off the record here, off the book here, so like, what do we have goal wise, for next season? Have we kind of established those goals yet? I mean, obviously get deeper into the playoffs? Yeah, we actually have our first full team meeting today, right after great to go over summer camp schedules and what our team goals are, and for the guys that haven't played a winter sport that's been in the weight room, it's just kind of the standard is the standard. It doesn't change. There's still a lot of history to be made here. Be the first ever team to have three winning seasons in a row. It's never happened here. Be the first team to get to week 13, whether that, if we take care of business in the rather regular season, get a buy and have to win one to get to week 13, or when week 11, we win week 12, get to 13, get to the regional finals, all those goals are set. I think we have a team that can accomplish that moving forward. And yeah, that's the goals for this coming up season. Talk to me last question. Talk to me a little bit. It's a lot of commitment. You guys know this? I mean, you're living it right, but like, talk to me about the summer commitment. I mean, you know? I mean, it's like we're gearing up now, yeah, it's year round, pretty much, especially for the coaches, we'll take a few weeks. I give them about two weeks off, then we, we meet as coaching staffs to go over the season, individually, as a group, and right into the next season. You know, we've gone three straight weeks we've been either out of town or somewhere around here at Coaches clinics, trying to be better coaches, trying to get this program better. And we'll always change what we're doing to our players. So it's players formation plays in all three phases. So every year can look different and they'll look a little bit different, but we have a ton of kids returning, especially up front. We got some great skill guys like the two next to me. And then if they're not in a winter sport, they get 30 days off, because that's what Ohio high school makes us do. And then we're right in the weight room. If you're not in spring sport, you're with us. And then once that's done, we're three to four days a week in June and July, whether that's lifting camp, days seven on seven, team building all that stuff. And then once August one hits, it's six days a week until hopefully into late November, early December, when the season comes to an end. So it's a lot of time commitment, but the more you embrace the grind of it, the better it's gonna be during the season. Okay, guys ready? So first question, so how long you guys played before this? I guess that's my question. Let's talk a little history for you guys. For me, I started in second grade, you know, playing with third and fourth graders. I wasn't supposed to be so it's been I've been playing for a while now, so just gonna keep sticking with it and go to college. Yeah, I've played in the Fairview football program since I was in fourth grade, and then every year since then, except for covid. Years, in one year I haven't played. Talk to me about how. You've This is a deep question right off the top here. Talk to me about how you guys have grown over the last few seasons, right? Not only as football players, but like men well over football, like over football in general. I feel like we've all grown our separate ways. Men wise, I feel like it's kind of hard to say, but I feel like we definitely have matured more like, over the couple years. You know, my freshman year, you know, we had a lot of we had a lot of times we mess around and stuff like that. So I feel like always last, like two to three years, we definitely have grown and gone way more better. Yeah, I think this football program like sent from our freshman year to now has just changed so much culture, culturally wise, with the leaders are from our freshman year seniors captains. We didn't want the past few seasons to be like that. We wanted to be together, combined as one, and then last year seniors and the year before that, seniors just help us, like, guide us where we need to go and what we want to be. Next question is perfect. So like, what does leadership look like on this team to you guys, you know, based on your experiences, and maybe even if you're not a captain, right? I mean, if you're just going into senior year, you're, you know, you're on the team, you're a senior leader. What's it look like to you guys? Leadership to us, you know, looks like somebody that you know takes it more serious than everybody else. You know, we all have our times like we want to mess around the weight room and stuff, but, you know, we always need that one person that's just like, there's like, like, we need to get our work done and stuff like that. We can't mess around. We can't mistakes on the field, because, you know, mistakes result in some players that don't really go our way. So, like, that's what a leader looks like to me here, I think it's more about not just like being there every single day. I think it's more about pushing the younger, the underclassmen, making sure they're on top of it, and then not, like building them up, right? We don't need to put everybody down and then obviously take everybody under your wing, just because it's like, we're team, we're family. You. I mean, it's been an interesting journey for you too, right? I mean, freshman year, we weren't so successful, and now, right? You've kind of tasted the success over the past couple seasons. Like, I mean, I guess when you came to Camp, like, this would be your sophomore year, right? Did it, did it feel different? Or, yeah, it definitely felt different. I feel like when we were going into camp, like we all had that mindset, like, we wanted to be better than we were, like, because we know we're not one to nine. Like, like, we know we shouldn't be one of nine. Like, we know we should be winning more of these games and stuff like that. So we definitely had a mentality going into the season, like we're gonna stop messing around, like we actually gonna take this serious and we're actually gonna go out there and show everybody what we got. Yeah, I think our mentality shifted from freshman year to sophomore year. Everybody was bought in from the very beginning on, when we started camp in June, and then nobody really missed a lot of days. We bought into the weight room, we trusted our coaching staff and everybody wanted to do their 1/11 that's a good quote. 1/11 this season, although is highly successful, right? It wasn't a season without adversity. Like, how did you guys handle adversity this season? Is, was there an example? Maybe a game or or, you know, at some point we were down in a game and we rallied to come back. I mean, what? What comes to mind first of all, so we started the season with a good winning. It's ClearView, good ClearView team, and I think all of our heads were so high. And we took that week of Columbia, the second week of the year, we lost just like kind of as a bye week. We beat him last year. We know we're gonna beat him this year, and we got punched in the mouth, and we don't like that. So I think that helped us return. Played a good game. It's a great Kirtland team as our second loss. Other than that, I think we played a really great season. You agree with that? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So like, over the past two years, what's been your favorite memory as a player? I mean, there's, you guys have had some awesome wins, some big, big games. Like, I don't know what, what's you know, looking back 510, 15 years from now, is there gonna be something you're gonna remember from these last two seasons, obviously, the big games, like the playoff win, the game down in West Virginia that we won this past season, going to the first playoff game, and how many of our years when we did the my sophomore year? But I think it's more about the time we spend together outside of practice, like we're not going to get team breakfasts again, team dinners, like after practice, before Friday's game. I think it's just the bond that we have outside of football, is what I'm going to remember the most. Yeah, I agree. You know, we went down at West Virginia game. You know, all of us just on the bus. You know, talking, bonding, getting to know each other, like, way more like it was a very, like, exciting experience going down. And I'm definitely remember, you know, all the team dinners, all the, you know, after game stretches. Like, I'm definitely remember that they're also probably be the most well traveled team in the history of Fairview. It was your freshman year, right? We went down to Columbus. We play in the CBC. So, you know, we go out way far east. This year, we got to go to the Pennsylvania border for a conference game. We had to go almost six hours to West Virginia. We had a playoff game out in Finley. So it's good that they all get along and like that kind of stuff, because we travel and are on a bus a lot together and have a lot of team meals in different states and different colleges that we visit on the way. So yeah, I'm glad that you guys will remember that and enjoy that stuff. You know, looking back and coach said it a few minutes ago. But right, the community part of it too. This community was pumped up for you guys, right? I mean, it was all over social media. Everybody you talked to in town would ask what the football's team is doing. I mean, I can't tell you how many like direct messages I got on social media asking us how to get tickets ask. I mean, that stuff doesn't happen all the time. So that being said, how do you first of all, right, and it's more than just your family showing up to the games. I mean, it's perfect strangers, realistically, you know. So how do you hope, first of all, kind of, you know, you're thankful for the community, I'm assuming. But like, how do you hope the community remembers, you know, this run that we've had, and you know, hopefully, you know, we'll have more sustained success. But certainly this is something new or something the community hasn't seen in some time. What do you hope they remember from the past two years, from the past two years? Yeah, I hope they see how much fun that we have and how much fun we have with the kids at youth camps and stuff like that. Not just the wins. Obviously, the wins are great. Going to playoffs is great. But I think they should really look at us more of just the men that we are, that we become, and how we treat everybody in this community. Yeah, I agree with that. I definitely hope like they, you know, like, remember us as, like, role models, almost to these little kids. You know, we took them under our wings. We showed them, like how the game is played and stuff like that. So I definitely hope they remember us from that. Okay, Mr. Adams, it's time for you, you know, kind of just your thoughts on this whole season and what it's meant, not only to the high school, but to the whole community, I guess, yeah, I think this group is just doing a great job of leading the way for this high school, bringing back Fairview pride. They've they're ultra competitive. They put in the work that needs to be done to achieve their goals. And like they said, you know, they like having that admiration from the community and from the youth. And you know, I've been an ad for this is my ninth year. I've never had elementary kids coming up to high schoolers asking for our autographs. So this is a fun community. The fact that we're so close knit, you know, we're a small, small town surrounded by big schools, so we get that close home feel that other schools around here don't have. And it's pretty cool to experience that, and so proud to be able to work with these kids every single day and watch them accomplish their goals, but also to see that that community just rally behind them and support them. Well, we're all looking forward to next season, that's for sure, not only in the building, but certainly outside the building. So we're looking forward to that. I appreciate your time today. I mean, I know time is always precious, especially here at school, so I appreciate the few minutes to sit down and talk today about the season. And good luck next next year. Next season. Guys this year, I guess, but next season, so And Coach, thanks very much. Yeah, and you know, Mr. Adams, thanks again for providing some perspective on it all. So I guess the last question, and, you know, I actually hand wrote this question, but I forgot it until now. This for you too. You know, what are you guys looking forward to most next season? Is it? Is it? I mean, you know, the standard answer, I guess, would be right, going farther into the playoffs. Is there something in addition to that? I think what I'm looking forward is to see what this team can do. This is obviously our first year in high school without Burke at quarterback, who was a great quarterback, obviously, but I think I'm excited to see what we can do this whole season, because there's so much down on this team. Yeah, I agree with the sophomores are coming up. Up and stuff like that. I didn't just, I just can't wait to see, like, what guys can fill those positions and what they can do, and I just can't wait to set more goals this year and just go farther playoffs. Did you want to look like you wanted to say something? I was just going to speak on the behalf of these two, what I'm excited to see from from Cal and from LA here is Cal. Cal's fearless. He doesn't back down from challenges. I'm excited to see him continue to do that his senior year, where that'll take him and his leadership capability. And LaMarcus, this kid brings the work pail to lunch every single day. I mean, he does everything that you need to do the right way. He's in charge of the weight room. He works hard every single hour that he's on in football. And I can't wait another fearless kid that we have in this building. So the fact that we've got this, this culture going here, not only in just in the football team, but in all of our athletics. And these are two great representatives of next year's Senior class that are going to be paving the way for us. I'm excited to see where they're, where they're going to take us. How about you coach? What are we excited to looking forward to next season, like every year, seeing how this unique group of guys gel and come together. You know, LaMarcus was voted a captain as a junior, which is pretty special. Special doesn't happen often. Cal was a leader within that group, even though he wasn't voted Captain as a junior. And just, you know, every year is is different, especially at a small public school, you lose guys, you get more guys to come out and really looking forward to how they're gel. And I know you just have to tell a few of these kids once, and they let everyone under the sun know that wants to play football. They deal with it all. And just seeing how they how they lead this team to what should be a pretty special season, and seeing what comes of it is what I'm really, really excited for. Well, hopefully we give out some more autographs. Well, thanks again, guys. I really appreciate the time today, and you know, thank you for joining us on this episode of the Fairview advantage podcast, and we look forward to having you join us on a future episode. Thanks so much.

Announcer: 22:19

Thank you for tuning into the Fairview advantage podcast. If you have something you'd like to hear on a future episode, submit your idea at Fairview Park schools.org. Forward slash podcast. We look forward to connecting with you in future episodes of the Fairview advantage podcast.

Unknown: 22:39

Until then, go warriors.