Countdown to Football: Findlay

2025 Record: 6-5 (2-3 NLL Buckeye)Head coach: Stefan Adams (6th year, 32-25)KEY GAME: Oct. 2, at home, with Perrysburg. Turnover is a fluctuating fact of life in every sport. As usual, Findlay graduated some outstanding players, including seven first- and second-team all-league selections. But numbers are solid, the feeder system is productive, and a positive climate seems well entrenched. By Week 7, early issues will have been addressed and strengths and weaknesses will be known. Findlay will have a challenging matchup at Oregon Clay on Sept. 25, and a win there would have them heading home for back-to-back games with 2025 NLL Buckeye Division co-champions Perrysburg and Toledo Whitmer. Perrysburg edged Findlay 14-10 a year ago, and Whitmer won 35-33. A win in this Week 7 matchup would be pivotal to the Trojans being in the thick of the NLL race once again. INTERESTING FACT: Here's an oddity. When Findlay and Medina tee it up for the 2026 season opener at Donnell Stadium, it will be a matchup between two Ohio schools who had former quarterbacks go on to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Findlay's storied alum, obviously, is Ben Roethlisberger, a Mr. Football finalist in 1999 who went on to a record-setting college career at Miami (Ohio) before the Steelers made him the No. 11 pick in the 2004 NFL draft. Roethlisberger made the most of the opportunity, quarterbacking Pittsburgh to three Super Bowls, winning two and placing among the all-time NFL leaders in passing yards (5th, 64,088), touchdowns (8th, 418), and winning percentage (4th, 710) in what will almost assuredly be a Hall of Fame career. Medina answers with Drew Allar, who won Ohio's Mr. Football Award in 2021, starred collegiately at Penn State, and was drafted by the Pittsburgh in the third round of this year's draft. Allar is projected to back up Steelers starter Aaron Rodgers this season. MAGIC NUMBER: 183. Every two years, schools submit to the OHSAA enrollment numbers for both boys and girls in grades 9, 10 and 11. That total is then added to a competitive balance number (transfers, open enrollment students) to determine what division schools will be bracketed in for post-season tournaments. In a bit of a surprise Findlay High, historically one of the larger schools in the Northwest District, dropped from Division I to Division II in all seven-division sports with the exception of volleyball, which is below the DI-DII cutoff (562) but has opted to remain Division I under an OHSAA bylaw that allows a school to bump up to a higher division for tournament play. A main reason for the drop was a 183-student decline in Findlay's base enrollment number between those taken in October of 2023 (622 boys, 582 girls) and October of 2025 (513 boys, 508 girls). According to the Education Commission of the States, factors as simple as smaller families and "budget constraints and failed tax levies (that) led to staff and program reductions and transportation cuts," have altered class sizes, along with private schools, more homeschooling and "a pursuit of specialized learning environments." FINDLAY2026 SCHEDULEDate Opponent Home/AwayAug. 21 Medina H 28 Lima Senior HSept. 4 Springfield A 11 Sylvania Southview H 18 Fremont Ross H 25 Oregon Clay* AOct. 2 Perrysburg* H 9 Toledo Whitmer* H 16 Sylvania Northview* A 23 Anthony Wayne* A*NLL-Buckeye Division games