It's good to be home: homefield advantage exists, but it's the program that creates it

To some, it carries a lot of weight to see the silver helmets with the signature red feather take the field in Bellevue, the players with their arms locked together.

In Clyde it’s to hear the piped-in sounds of an airplane taking off as the blue-clad Fliers charge onto the turf at Robert Bishop Stadium.

Then there is the intimidation of the slow trickle of all-black-uniformed St. Paul players grouping in the end zone or Huron players gathering at the block “H” at midfield.

However, when the game starts, it’s also a 100-yard field for both teams.

“I don’t think there is an advantage once the game starts, to be honest,” said St. Paul coach John Livengood, whose teams have made it a living nightmare for opponents who travel to Warren Whitney Field to take on the Flyers.

With another regular season gone, one key area in high school football is the success teams have at home, and if playing at home makes a difference in the outcome.

Comfort level

According to several area coaches it’s not so much the atmosphere and crowd that gives an advantage at home — if there is an advantage.

“I think certain places have more of a comfort level than anything else,” Margaretta coach Rock Farlow said. “For example, it’s nice to play at home late in the year if the weather is bad. If you get all wet and cold, it’s sure nice to be at home for that type of game.”

If there is an advantage gained by a team at home, Livengood thinks it’s the facilities such as smaller locker rooms and visiting stands.

“Where you have an advantage is if you have facilities when you’re traveling that may not be adequate or up to par with what you’re acclimated to at home,” he said. “That might be a disadvantage, but I don’t know that there is a true advantage to playing at home.”

At Norwalk, first-year coach Chris MacFarland prefers to have the Truckers don the white uniforms on the road.
“I think there is more structure in an away game,” MacFarland said. “You get the kids on the bus, and you know where every kid is and what they are doing when you take that drive. They’re not at home, running around before the game … now they can concentrate on the task at hand. I like the structure of it.

“It’s nice to play in front of a home crowd because you’re pretty much guaranteed to have more people to support you, but throughout a game, I don’t know that I notice the crowd that much until afterwards. I’m sure kids get more emotional with that.”

Another thing Farlow is sure of is home teams usually get the breaks in a game.

“Teams just have advantages — not so much the atmosphere, playing conditions or fans,” Farlow said. “I’ve been on both sides of that. A lot of coaches will tell you teams always seem to get the breaks at home, but never get one on the road.”

MacFarland also pointed out in Ohio, once the playoffs begin a team gets only one home game anyway and before 1999 had no home playoff games at all. In some states — as well as the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) and Division II and III football in college — all playoff games until the semifinals or title game are played at one team’s home facility.

“Once you get into the playoffs, you only get one chance to be at home,” MacFarland said. “If you want to be a state-title contender — like, say, St. Paul — then you have to win four times on the road in usually inclement weather to end the season where you want it to.

“Instead of someone making a long drive to your place for a regional final, now you’re meeting in the middle.”

Saturday night delight?

One factor to home field that affects 13 of the area’s 18 teams is the potential of playing on Saturday nights.

With St. Paul and St. Mary Central Catholic playing home games on Saturdays because of shared facilities with Norwalk and Sandusky, respectively, every other year area Sandusky Bay Conference and Firelands Conference teams must change around an entire week to play a day later.

Since 1995, St. Paul is 76-7 at home compared to losing 27 away games — counting the playoffs — during that stretch. Meanwhile, SMCC is 49-47 at home in the same stretch compared to having losing mark on the road.

“Playing on Saturday is a whole different mind-set,” SMCC coach Jason Ziegler said. “Most people don’t like doing it because when you play a majority of your games on Fridays, it’s an entirely different routine to play Saturday.

“It’s just a different feeling, and your kids have to get that focus back. The Saturday thing does affect some teams.”

Said Livengood, “When you go to a Friday week, it seems like a much shorter week because you’re used to five days of practice. The one thing that’s nice about playing Saturdays is that it’s nice to have the extra practice on Friday. But the bad part about it is you game-plan all day Sunday. You don’t get to enjoy a day off.”

During the regular season, Livengood and his coaching staff are able to scout three games when they have Friday nights off. When they’re on the road and playing Friday nights, only one game can be scouted.

Conversely, coaches of FC teams — and SBC teams that can scout SMCC — have the opportunity to watch each team on four or five occasions during the season.

While admitting it was difficult to get used to when he first arrived at the school, Livengood not only accepted playing on Saturdays, he revels in it.

“Something that we’ve kind of embraced is that, being at home on a Saturday night, we’re kind of the only show in town,” he said. “People that just in general like football, hopefully they come out and watch a good football game on Saturday nights.”