By Craig Dunn
Logan Daily News

LOGAN — To say the Logan Chieftains have a huge bull’s-eye on their collective backs would be, to say the least, a major understatement.

But when you’re the hunted, as the Chiefs are accustomed to being, there’s another important aspect to consider.

As opening night of the 2009 football season draws near, the Purple & White are hungry for more success… and they plan to do some hunting of their own.
“It’s been that way for a few years now,” longtime Logan coach Dale Amyx said of wearing the proverbial bull’s-eye. “We know everyone’s going to bring their ‘A’ game against us, and I think our kids know and understand that.

“We’ve talked (with the players) about that. We know we have to play lights-out every single week,” he added. “Everybody wants to say they’re the first team to beat you in a long time.”

The Chieftains certainly haven’t been beaten in a long time, at least not within the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League. Logan’s last conference setback was to Jackson in 2004.

The Purple & White have won five straight SEOAL titles — the last four outright — and own a 29-game winning streak in league play, just five behind Ironton’s all-time record of 34 from 1971 to 1976.

With a veteran, talented team that includes 20 returning lettermen, 19 seniors, a first-team All-Ohio quarterback (Patrick Angle), a second-team All-Ohio receiver (Mason Mays) and a stable of other terrific receivers and skill-position talent, the sky’s the limit for the Chieftains.

And while SEOAL foes and others alike take aim on that huge bull’s-eye, the Chiefs have their sights set high, too.

They’re coming off the school’s sixth-ever undefeated regular season and third post-season victory (as well as the first home win) in school history, a 23-7 triumph over Dublin Jerome.

They then got a taste of big-time playoff football when they lost a tough 7-0 decision to perennial state power Louisville in a second-round Division II game on a monsoon of a night in Zanesville.

You can thus see why the Chiefs’ goals and aspirations are as high as they’ve ever been. They’re hungry… and they have the talent to take a huge bite in the playoffs.

“You’d like to get past that hurdle and get into the third round,” Amyx said. “Our goals are to go 10-0, win the SEOAL championship and be state champions.”

Logan has won 12 league titles in Amyx’s 19 seasons as head coach and has reached the playoffs six times — including each of the last three seasons — during his tenure. So while the Louisville loss was tough to take, Amyx and his coaching staff know how to approach the playoffs when the times comes.

“You’d like to think so,” he said. The Chiefs played Louisville, “a team very similar to us that had been to the (state Division II) finals the year before, so I think our kids realized they have the ability to get to the finals — and win the finals.

“We’re playing teams now who have been there and done it,” he added. “We could easily have won that game. It could have went our way (and) probably should have went to overtime. (The players) saw how exciting that kind of (playoff) atmosphere is.”

The five-time defending league champion Chiefs can look to a pretty good program to model how to approach their goals: none other than four-time defending Big Ten champion Ohio State.

“I heard (OSU head coach Jim) Tressel talk about that the other day at Ohio State,” Amyx said. “Everybody wants to beat Ohio State. It’s great playing and coaching at a school where expectations are that high.

“You want to be the top dog, and you want to be the guys they’re shooting for,” he continued. “I’d rather be that guy than the guy working from the bottom up.”

But now that they’re preparing for Friday night’s season opener at Lancaster, don’t expect to hear too much talk about future foes, championships or playoffs from within Chieftain camp.

“Once we start the season, I won’t mention a single one of those,” Amyx said. “All we’ll talk about is who we’re playing that week. It’s 1-0 every week.

“You have got to focus, and that’s one of the hardest parts of my job, to keep these kids focused on what we’re doing that day (in practice) and who we play that week,” he added.

Amyx simply won’t let his players or coaches — or himself — get caught looking ahead.

“In this day and age of the Internet, Facebook (and) talking back-and-forth, fans don’t want to talk about the game you’re playing that week. They want to talk about the game you’re playing two or three weeks from now (and) who you think you might play in the playoffs,” Amyx said. “That’s all good for the fans, but we don’t have that luxury of being able to look ahead.

“When you start looking ahead, that’s when you’re going to get beat,” he added. “You’ve got to focus on the team you’re playing that week.”

That being said, what the Logan Chieftains would simply like to achieve this season is a 1-0 record every week — about, say, 15 times.