http://www.athensmessenger.com/sports/local/trimble-duo-e...

Downs & another Koons

One big benefit from college football is that it helps to bridge the town-gown divide. The influx of walkons from Athens and surrounding communities is a positive sign.

As an alumnus of both Trimble HS and Ohio University, and a long time friend and acquaintance of both the Koons and Downs families, I am especially gratified to see these young men get an opportunity to show that local players can compete at the highest level of college football, in spite of the disadvantages of playing in the lowest divisions of Ohio HS athletics.

I also agree that having local players on the team will increase interest in Ohio Football among the local population.

No. I graduated from Jacksonville-Trimble High School (AKA Trimble Township HS, or J-T)) in 1963. In 1964, the Trimble Township School District was merged with the Glouster Exempted Village School District to form the current Trimble School District. The high school was first located in the old Glouster High School building, until it was condemned, (I think it continued to be called Glouster High School), then moved temporarily to Jacksonville in a new building originally intended to be a grade school. It was moved back to Glouster when the new high school building was built, but retained the name Trimble High School ever since. Both J-T and Glouster graduates (as well as graduates/students of Hollister and Greens Run High Schools) are considered alumni of Trimble.

Jacksonville-Trimble (J-T) and Glouster were separate high schools from their establishment until the fall of 1964 (Glouster was older...not sure when the schools were actually established). My Dad graduated from J-T in 1941, so I'm guessing J-T HS was established some time in the 1930's.

Prior to 1964, Glouster was an "exempted village" school district (whatever the hell that meant, as was Nelsonville) which was limited mostly to the corporation limits of Glouster, although some students from the Burr Oak area attended Glouster schools. The Trimble Township district covered all the rest of the township plus a small area of Ames Township east of Trimble.

After the consolidation in 1964, I think the high school continued to be called Glouster High School until it was moved to Jacksonville, when the name Trimble High School was adopted (not sure what year that was, but it was after my sister graduated in 1974). Even after the high school was returned to Glouster they continued to use the name Trimble High School.

There used to be a poster by the name of "JCW" who argued that SE Ohio produced few quality players, and few Division I athletes. I don't really recall anyone saying that since he left a few years back. I looked through this thread, and didn't see anyone suggesting that here. Perhaps I missed it?

I could be mistaken about Nelsonville as to whether it was a city school district or exempted village district. In any case it was merged with Buchtel-York somewhere along the line to form the present Nelsonville-York school district. In the 1960's and 1970's the State Board of Education forced consolidation of most of the school districts in Athens County. Besides Nelsonville-York and Trimble (J-T and Glouster), Chauncey-Dover and The Plains merged with Athens; Albany, Shade, and Waterloo were consolidated to form Alexander; and Ames-Bern, Rome-Canaan, and Carthage-Troy were merged to form Federal Hocking.

As you wrote, in football, Athens and Nelsonville were in the SEOAL; J-T, Chauncey-Dover, and the Plains played in the SEOBL (South Eastern Ohio Buckeye League). Glouster played in the Muskingum Valley Leage (MVL). Those were the only schools in Athens County that fielded football teams. These teams also played basketball in the same leagues. In addition, for basketball and baseball, the Athens County School District (which supervised all the school districts except Athens, Nelsonville, and Glouster), sponsored it's own league (the Athens County League) which had both regular season champions and ran end-of-season tournaments for basketball and baseball, the winners passing on into the state playoff system.

LC, it's comments like "glad to see these players get a chance to show that local kids can compete at the highest level", and a few others like that, as I said, post that "infer". Right now there are 4 kids at Big 10 schools from the SE District, and handful playing at mid majors, the area is as strong as its ever been. Maybe not the number of Columbus as I stated, but a much smaller sample size to draw from.

If it was between 1961 and 1963, I played in that tournament, and it would have been Jacksonville-Trimble (probably billed as Trimble by that time), not Glouster. If it was in Grover, that would have been in 1962 or 1963, as the tournament was held in the old Men's Gymnasium (now Bentley Hall) through 1961, I believe. I don't remember the specific game, but I do remember in 1963 we came close to knocking off one of the tournament favorites in spite of the fact that we had a lousy season.

Jeff, the only thing I remember about that game was that the winning team (I think it was Albany) had this bowlegged played who kept getting to the foul line at the end of the game an he made nearly every foul shot. He had the funniest looking foul shot as he crouched down on his bowlegs and then came back up as he released the ball. That sound familiar at all?

I understand, as this is stretching my memory, too. It's funny the little things like this bowlegged player's foul shots that you remember, but not the details of the game or even who the opponent was for sure. I suppose if he hadn't looked so strange shooting foul shots, I might not remember the game at all.

His invite to camp will be all about the numbers.