LOUDONVILLE — New Loudonville football coach Keith Lemke hopes a few trips down the Mohican River will lead to more wins along the banks of the Black Fork.
The 2012 Loudonville graduate and longtime assistant was hand-picked to replace north central Ohio legend Ed Honabarger, who reluctantly stepped down after two seasons because of changes to Ohio Department of Education retirement guidelines.
Lemke and the Redbirds have spent the early portion of the summer engaging in team-building activities, including a recent float on the Mohican.
“Every June we do some team-bonding things and this week happened to be our rafting trip,” Lemke said. “I tried to get the guys to go next week when it’s going to be sunny and 90, but they all wanted to go this week. We got rained on a little bit, but it was still a lot of fun.
“The goal is to build that brotherhood. It’s not necessarily about the X’s and O’s. Successful teams are teams that are close-knit.”
Lemke inherits a tradition-rich program that has fallen on hard times of late. The Redbirds were 3-17 in Honabarger’s two seasons, but turned a corner last year after going winless in 2024.
Five of Loudonville’s seven losses last season came against playoff-qualifying teams. The Redbirds fell to Division VII, Region 27 runner-up Danville 34-28, pushed Division V playoff qualifier Fredericktown to overtime before falling 26-20 and gave Division VI playoff qualifier Mount Gilead all it could handle in a 28-21 loss.
“We ended up 3-7, which was a big improvement over Ed’s first year,” said Lemke, who served as Loudonville’s defensive coordinator under Honabarger and John Battaglia. “We lost three games by seven or fewer points and a lot of those games came down to the final drive or the final play.
“If we have a few things go our way, we’re 6-4 or 5-5 and probably get into the playoffs. Our message this off-season is we have to find a way to finish games.”
Lemke credited Honabarger with reviving the once-proud program. Loudonville is one of just a handful of area schools with a winning postseason record (12-11). The Redbirds reached the Division V state finals in 1990 (a 29-26 loss to Versailles that really turned on one bad second quarter. The ‘Birds dominated the other three periods that day in Massillon).
“The last two years have been a blessing, being able to coach under Ed,” said Lemke, a four-year letterman at the College of Wooster. “I learned so much from him, from the way he schedules practices to the way he breaks down film and puts the gameplan together.
“He taught me a lot about professionalism.”
Loudonville must replace All-Ohio honorable-mention selection Josiah Hershberger, but Lemke welcomes back a wealth of talent.
“We bring back seven starters on either side of the ball,” Lemke said. “We’re bringing back a lot of production not just this upcoming year but the following.”
Lemke doesn’t plan on making wholesale schematic changes.
“We’re not going to re-invent the wheel,” he said. “Ed and I were very similar in the vision we have for the program.
“Moving forward, we’re going to keep a lot of things the same but we’ll add some wrinkles offensively and defensively.”
Loudonville opens the season Aug. 21 at Mapleton. Until then, Lemke and the ’Birds will continue building chemistry ahead of the official first day of practice on Aug. 1.
“We’ll do some other team-bonding things later in the summer, barbecues and things like that,” Lemke said. “This is our chance to come together and not worry about the grind of the football season. It’s an opportunity to come together and gel.
“Close teams can rally and come together and get through those tough times. That’s where the team-bonding comes into play.”
