Archbishop Hoban football learned to adapt to keep Thanksgiving Day practice tradition alive
AKRON, Ohio – Maddie Tyrrell spends her Thanksgiving mornings in her pajamas watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.
It isn’t that her father Tim Tyrrell doesn’t enjoy the parade, but he would rather spend his Thanksgiving morning with his group of teenagers – some of whom were also wearing pajamas – at Dowed Field as the Archbishop Hoban football team practiced in preparation for Friday night’s state semifinal game against Avon.
When asked jokingly on Thursday why he hated the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Hoban’s head coach laughed.
“If I wasn't coaching right now, I'd probably be home because my daughter absolutely loves watching it,” Tim Tyrrell said.
This is the seventh time in the last nine years that the Knights have gathered at their home field on Thanksgiving morning for practice, which is an indicator that a team has made the state semifinals in Ohio.
The only two seasons the Knights haven’t practiced on the holiday were 2019 when they lost in the regional final and in 2020, when they won the state championship, but the schedule was moved up and that state championship game was played the weekend prior to Thanksgiving due to COVID-19.
That 2019 offseason was a tough one to swallow for Tyrrell and his coaching staff, as the Knights were coming off four straight state championships before falling to Massillon in the regional finals at the University of Akron’s InfoCision Stadium the week before Thanksgiving.
The loss meant Hoban wouldn’t be practicing on Thanksgiving for the first time in five years.
“You kind of reevaluate things when you're not practicing (on Thanksgiving),” Tyrrell said. “It's time to self-reflect a lot. You do that anyway after a season but in that year, you try to figure out what went wrong. (Strength and conditioning) Coach (Mike) Winkler and I met a lot that offseason on why some kids were hurt, and how we prevent those types of things."
One thing that came from that offseason was the realization that things cannot always stay status quo if the team wanted to get back to that Thanksgiving Day practice.
“It was a lot of self-reflection and changing up with some different things,” Tyrrell said. “(It was about) not being afraid to change and not trying to constantly bang in the same hole every single time and trying to do it over and over again, just being able to change.”
And when it comes to change, Tyrrell has a saying that his assistant coaches might get tired of hearing, but one that he and the program live by.
“'If it ain't broke, break it', instead of 'it ain't broke, don't fix it,'” Tyrrell said. “We love breaking things. We love doing those types of things, and getting out of the norm, changing up different styles of how we do practice, from warmups to everything. It’s just being able to adapt to change because if you're not changing and trying to get better, the other teams that want to catch you catch up.”
While his coaches may not love hearing the saying over and over again, they understand how important it is to keep adapting and it is one of the reasons Hoban has been so successful over the past nine seasons, with five state titles and now eight state semifinal appearances.
“They do it with a smile on their face,” Tyrrell said. “It's kept us going and I think that's the biggest thing is it's gotten us to this point a lot and we're blessed to be here.”
Practicing on Thanksgiving has become more than just about preparing for the next game for Hoban, as it has turned into a chance for the staff to invite former players back to give them their due credit for what the program has become.
Every season, Tyrrell gathers the team after the Thanksgiving Day practice and invites the alumni who have come that day to huddle with the team. He then reminds the current players that they wouldn’t have the things they have today without those who came before them.
“I love it just because it's turned into a little bit of a tradition for the school and for alumni to be able to come back,” Tyrrell said. “It's always different alumni. You get some young ones, you get some older ones and then all of a sudden you get a whole new crew of older ones who come in.
"You know you're doing the right stuff when it turns into a tradition that you're doing every single year and making sure that kids understand how blessed they are that they have the ability to do it.”
Thanksgiving Day practice is something Tyrrell doesn’t want to talk about too early in the season, but the head coach also knows the reality of dealing with a group of young men who could be looking to the future as the season unwinds.
“We try not to get too far ahead but once the kids can see it in sight, you have to be realistic,” Tyrrell said. “That's not what we're focused on. We are focused on weeks 12, 13 and 14, but if they want to be here on a Thursday morning, they have to concentrate on those things and they have to be able to understand that to get to that point, you have to do what's needed at that time not looking too far forward.”
Archbishop Hoban head coach Tim Tyrrell talks to his team after defeating Massillon in the state semifinals at the University of Akron's InfoCision Stadium on November 25, 2022. Photo credit: Jeff Harwell
Jeff Harwell, SBLive Sports
A former player who was at practice on Thursday morning and who went through the years both with and without practice on Thanksgiving was Shawn Parnell, who graduated in 2022 and practiced twice on Thanksgiving while also being on the team in 2019 and 2020 when there was no holiday practice.
“Those seasons we didn't get to practice (on Thanksgiving) were hard,” said Parnell, who is currently playing baseball at the University of Cincinnati. “Practicing on Thanksgiving puts it in a different perspective to where you're like, this is actually really special. Being able to practice on Thanksgiving is huge.”
While Parnell is not playing football in college, he reminisces fondly on his time on the gridiron at Hoban, which is one reason he makes it a point to return for the Thanksgiving Day practice.
“I learned so many life lessons here,” Parnell said. “There’s a lot of good memories here. A lot of my core memories are here. This football program, being in it, a lot of it is a huge part of me being the man I am today. I love coming back to this football atmosphere.”
Another player who attended the Thursday morning practice was Lamar Sperling, the 2022 recipient of Ohio’s Mr. Football Award. Currently playing running back for the University at Buffalo, Sperling was back at Dowed Field on Thursday morning to watch his former team practice and reflected on just how special the chance to practice on the holiday is.
“As a player, you work for moments like (practicing on Thanksgiving),” Sperling said. “That moment is special, because not many people are doing this right now. So being here watching them is really like a proud brother moment.”
Seeing Sperling on the sideline gave Tyrrell flashbacks and ideas.
“I was thinking I have plays for him,” Tyrrell joked. “I was telling a couple of the coaches ‘you know what we'd be doing right now if he was here?’”
If Sperling was still there, the Knights would be doing exactly what they were doing on Thursday – practicing on Thanksgiving and letting their coach miss the parade.
-- Ryan Isley | ryan@scorebooklive.com | @sbliveoh
