WADSWORTH — A model of stability and sustained success has hung up his whistle — for now.
Greg Dennison
Wadsworth’s Greg Dennison, the third-winningest football coach in Medina County history, announced his resignation Thursday, ending an unparalleled 21-year tenure at the school.
The 51-year-old led the Grizzlies to a 148-77 record, three Suburban League championships (1996, 2007, ’09), nine playoff appearances and three regional runner-up trophies (1999, 2003, ’11).
He will continue to teach math at the high school.
“Why? I think the timing is right,” he said. “It’s time for a change.”
Dennison’s teams finished .500 or better 18 times. The only losing seasons were 1995 (his first in charge), 2010 (when star Jack Snowball missed most of the season with injuries) and this fall, when Wadsworth sported its youngest lineup in years and went 3-7 in its first season as a member of the big-school SL National Division.
Dennison win total is 97 higher than second-place Rex McIlvaine (1955-64) in Wadsworth history and trails only Black River’s Al Young (173) and Brunswick’s Rich Nowak (152) in county lore.
Dennison was vague when asked to expand on why he stepped down. He made it clear, however, he plans on coaching somewhere next season and added the college level is intriguing.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “Obviously you don’t stay at a place for 21 years if it’s not a very good place. I’ve had some great players, great community and a great crowd. What stands out when I went through my (kidney) cancer surgery (before last season) was the support I got throughout the community. There’s a lot of positives here.”
The son of 1956 Wadsworth High graduate, former University of Akron and Walsh University coach and Medina County Sports Hall of Famer Jim Dennison, Greg Dennison was an assistant at North Canton Hoover (1987) and Barberton (1988-92) before going 11-9 as Norton’s head coach from 1993-94. He was hired to replace Ramizi Shepard at Wadsworth in 1995.
The Grizzlies were 3-7 that year, but followed with their first 10-0 season in 29 years and initial playoff appearance behind future NFL player Bob Jones and fellow All-Ohioans Dan Herbert (RB) and Joe Lowther (OL). That was the beginning of 14 straight non-losing seasons from 1996-2009, a feat only surpassed county-wide by Brunswick’s 22-year run from 1993-2014.
Known primarily for physical I-formation rushing attacks and mistake-free play, Dennison’s teams were the model of consistency.
The Grizzlies first took Medina County by storm in 1999 with, ironically, a high-octane passing attack featuring quarterback Mike Hoover, running back Joe Tricomi, tight end Chris Brink and receivers Adam Copeland and Ben Vujas. That team made it to the D-II regional championship, where it lost a 31-24 thriller to eventual state runner-up Sylvania Southview.
Wadsworth matched the feat in 2003 (Clint Cochran, Paul Macko, Luke Busson, Mike Marshall) and came within a Hail Mary of beating Toledo St. John’s Jesuit in D-I play. In 2011, the Grizzlies returned to the round of eight behind Snowball and a dynamite defense featuring current Ohio State wrestler Nick Tavanello.
“I think some of the highlights are when we beat teams nobody thinks we can beat,” said Dennison, who has coached 35 All-Ohioans. “We’ve beaten the Federal League champion twice in the playoffs (2003 Hoover and 2011 GlenOak) and been to the regional finals three times.
“When you do things like that, you know the kids are buying in when they overachieve. That’s a good feeling for everybody.”
Dennison’s success and connection to his father made him a hot commodity in 2005. Legendary football school Massillon asked him to apply for its coaching opening, and he felt he owed it to himself to at least look into it. Ultimately he remained at Wadsworth.
What Dennison leaves behind is a varsity team fresh off a losing season but also lower levels loaded with success. The immediate payoff lies in a touted sophomore class that got plenty of experience this fall.
That is only the beginning, though, as the seventh- and eighth-grade teams went undefeated, the freshman team was 7-2-1 and the junior varsity was 6-3-1 despite having 10th-graders Joey Fernholz, Joey Baughman, Clay McComas and Mitchell Blackburn start on varsity.
“That’s probably the thing I’m most proud of,” said Dennison, whose players often ran the same offense since their youth days. “We’re leaving the program in really, really good shape.
“That’s one of those things being here for 21 years, we’ve established a very good program. In 21 years, we’ve only had three losing seasons, and what’s nice is we’ve followed each one up with a 10-0 season (1996) and a 9-1 season in which we played for a regional championship (2011). I can see the program doing that next year.”
Though Dennison will no longer be on the Wadsworth sideline, he has no regrets.
“I knew the potential was there,” he said. “I didn’t come in with a plan of win a few years and go on to something else. We started to do things well, and our program started to take off. It became a good thing and a tough place to leave.”