Commentary: Hillsdale athletes stacking successes

JEROMESVILLE – It has been a whirlwind of a month for Hillsdale athletics.

Combine a long-awaited conference title and a stunningly impressive playoff win for the football team with a district title and the first Elite Eight appearance in 50 years for the volleyball team – as well as the first trip to the state tournament for the boys golf team in 38 years – and the adrenaline hasn’t stopped pumping since mid-October for the Falcons.

Those are just the latest exploits Hillsdale athletes have turned out during a stretch in recent years that also has included huge heights reached in softball (17 state appearances, last in 2022); baseball (state appearances in 2019 and 2024); and boys basketball (first Final Four last March).

The school’s 11th-year athletic director, Jodi Long, probably doesn’t get a ton of sleep as the seasons continue to lengthen.

This has become the new norm for the Falcons. Every few years, it seems another HHS program is doing something it hasn’t done in decades.

The volleyball team’s recent rise was the latest chapter in head-turning achievements. Last Saturday, the Falcons missed out on a ticket to the Final Four by mere points in a five-set nail-biter against fifth-ranked Dalton (26-1).

Under the tutelage of fourth-year head coach Matti Willeke, Hillsdale likely set a program record for wins with its 21-6 mark. This was a team that – in a nine-season stretch from 2014 through 2022 – won a TOTAL of 25 matches and was a combined 2-124 in Wayne County Athletic League play.

The Falcons went from cellar-dwelling doormats to the doorstep of the state semifinals in less than five years.

“To be here is pretty incredible and these girls are awesome,” Willeke told me before her squad’s Sweet 16 win over Lake Center Christian. “They’ve worked their butts off and it’s fun to see them just get to where they’ve gotten.”

They’ve worked their butts off and it’s fun to see them just get to where they’ve gotten.

Hillsdale volleyball coach matti willeke on her team

The last fall sport standing at Hillsdale – as has become a regularity – is football.

On the gridiron, the Falcons not only have grown used to setting new program standards almost annually, but setting them for the entire Ashland area as well.

The Falcons’ 11 consecutive trips to the playoffs are not just an area record, they’re five years ahead of the next-closest local team (Crestview made it six straight times from 2019 through 2024).

Hillsdale has hosted a playoff game in five consecutive seasons now – also an area first. The latest installment of that success came last Friday when the Falcons punished a Mineral Ridge team (10-2) that had put together one of the best seasons in its history.

The 52-14 shellacking was one of the program’s finest playoff performances, according to ninth-year head coach Trevor Cline.

It was the 270^th win in Hillsdale football history and the 80^th win for Cline (80-29).

It also gave the Falcons an 8-1 all-time record in home playoff games. The average margin of victory in those wins is a staggering 40.9 points.

Hillsdale Community Stadium – where the Falcons will carry a team-record 15-game win streak into next season – has become a place opponents dread.

That reality would have been unthinkable 20 years ago, when Hillsdale had yet to make a single postseason appearance.

Over the last three years, the Falcons have three double-digit-win seasons. That’s something Hillsdale had done just once in the six decades prior.

“This senior class has played 13 playoff games, so they’ve had the opportunity to play (another) whole season of football; not too many people get that opportunity,” Cline said last week.

“Our guys think it’s sort of the norm right now, but most programs in the state of Ohio – or anywhere – don’t get that opportunity.”

The reward for last week’s win is not ideal. On Friday, the Falcons take a road trip to Kirtland (10-1), where they will face a team that carries as much football clout as any small-school program in the country.

The Hornets are trying to become the first Ohio team this century to qualify to 10 consecutive state championship games. Only two others – Marion Local (nine from 2011-2019) and Coldwater (eight from 2009-2016) – have even made five straight in that time.

Of course, those latter two programs reside in the much-feared Midwest Athletic Conference, which currently has a combined 45 state titles in football.

Hillsdale played in two of those championship games, losing to Marion in 2024 and St. Henry in 2025.

Now, the Falcons get Kirtland and its resume of eight state championships.

It’s a sub-optimal draw for any team to get in a regional semifinal; the Hornets haven’t lost before the regional final since 2009.

But Cline and Hillsdale know matchups like these become the norm when a program climbs up to the next rung.

“This is our third opportunity to go up against a program like this (the last three years),” Cline said. “… It’s gonna be a great opportunity for our program and if you want to become that program that’s elite, these are the guys that you’ve gotta find a way to beat.”

… If you want to become that program that’s elite, these are the guys that you’ve gotta find a way to beat.

hillsdale coach trevor cline on facing kirtland

The Falcons and Hornets did link up back in 2014, which ironically was the last time before this season that Hillsdale won a share of the WCAL championship.

Kirtland beat the Falcons in the first round that year, 37-7, on its way to an eventual Division VI state final loss to Minster, 46-42.

This season, the Hornets have surrendered just two touchdowns since losing in Week 3 to Perry, a Division V state-title hopeful.

But to their credit, the Falcons’ starting defense has allowed just one touchdown since their lone loss in Week 5 to Smithville.

According to the Ohio high school football projection website fantastic50.net, Hillsdale is just a 16-point underdog Friday. Since its loss in Week 3, no team has been closer than 32 points to Kirtland.

If the Falcons’ run comes to an end, no one will be surprised.

But if Hillsdale makes a run at the Hornets, no one should be shocked, either.

Soon-to-be three-time All-Ohio senior Kael Lewis – the Ashland area’s most successful playoff quarterback ever (10-2 postseason record) – will have the ball in his hands. And the team around him features one of the best defenses in program history and has stockpiled playoff experience.

Opportunity knocks.

“We know we’ve got a juggernaut next week,” Lewis said last Friday, “and we’re a juggernaut ourselves.”