Home Grown: Learning 'The Little Things' At Lorain Paved the Way For Rashod Berry to Achieve His Dream of Playing For Ohio State

LORAIN, Ohio — When Dave McFarland was hired prior to the 2014 season as the head football coach at Lorain High School — a place which hadn’t made the state playoffs since it became a school with the merger between Admiral King and Southview in 2010 — he had one phrase in mind that would help him make history. Six words that could change the culture at a school that had never before seen a successful season.

“Do the things that winners do,” McFarland said.

In theory, it’s simple: Show up early to workouts; practice with a purpose; focus on each and every individual rep. “Do the little things right,” McFarland says, “and we’ll have success.” Getting high school kids to buy in to that theory, though, is perhaps a coach’s biggest challenge.

The response to McFarland's coaching was telling, though, as the Titans went 7-3 during the regular-season and qualified for the state playoffs for the first time in the new school’s history. A two-touchdown loss to Mentor in the opening round of Division I play eliminated Lorain, but there’s no doubt something special was achieved in McFarland’s first year.

“Once you get the kids doing the right things and people start to realize what’s going on, it’s just absolutely amazing the great things that are happening in Lorain and the great kids that are there,” McFarland told Eleven Warriors. “I think all those things just kind of spiraled and the support grew, more kids want to play and it’s kind of a cyclical thing where things are going good and it just gets better and better.”

Rashod Berry is one of those kinds of athletes you just don’t see every day. He’s 6-foot-5, 240 pounds and can play both sides of the ball, as he played wide receiver and defensive end at Lorain. He also became a YouTube sensation during basketball season with a highlight film filled with high-flying dunks. McFarland says Berry will start off his Buckeye career at tight end.

But for some reason, despite all of those attributes, Berry wasn’t garnering the attention from major college programs that he probably deserved heading into his senior season with the Titans.

“I was just lazy,” Berry told Eleven Warriors back in December. “I went through three head coaches in my high school career and that was bad for me. They knew I had talent, but didn’t really push me like I needed and wanted, and I got lazy.”

Something clicked when McFarland and his staff arrived at Lorain, though. Berry began focusing on those things the new head coach was preaching and, as a result, the major college programs started coming around again.

“It means a lot, it’s a dream come true. That’s my dream school and I’m going there and just can’t wait to get started.”– Rashod Berry

“When we came in, Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State had kind of backed off him a bit. He was looking at some of the mid-level Division I schools, but he really wanted to go to the big time. He kept saying, ‘What do I have to do?’” McFarland recalled. “For him, it was a light bulb. We kept telling him to do the little things right every play then everybody is gonna want you. When he started doing those little disciplines, man, next thing you know Michigan State’s at our practice, Ohio State’s at our practice, he’s catching the ball and making tackles.”

Lorain started to win some football games, too, which certainly didn’t hurt Berry’s cause. But McFarland believes the team’s success was a direct result of things finally clicking for the star player.

“Because he bought in to doing the little things right, the whole team bought in,” McFarland said. “When your best player buys in, that’s really how we transcended into a winning team was because of how Rashod did that.”

With that success came Berry’s offer from Ohio State. It didn’t take long for the Lorain star to accept.

“It means a lot, it’s a dream come true,” Berry said after this year's North-South Classic about playing for the Buckeyes. “That’s my dream school and I’m going there and just can’t wait to get started.”

It doesn’t matter where you are or where you come from, if you’re a talented high school football player, especially in the state of Ohio, Buckeyes head coach Urban Meyer and his staff will find you.

Lorain had never exactly been known as a hotbed for sending recruits to big-time college football programs, despite being in the talent-rich Cleveland area. Berry’s sophomore year, the season which he first started gaining interest from colleges, the Titans were just 2-8. The following year, when Berry was a junior, Lorain went 3-6.

The program’s struggles were part of the reason McFarland was drawn to the job at Lorain, though. He enjoys the challenge of rebuilding something.

“You live out here in Lorain County and all you hear is that you can’t win at Lorain, you’ve got these problems,” McFarland said. “It was a lot of fun because it reinforces for me that I think you can change the culture whether it’s a catholic school, a city school, an affluent school or a poor school. If you eliminate the excuses, you can raise the bar of expectation.”

The Titans responded with their best season in school history and sent a player to Ohio State in the process. Now, McFarland says because of the team’s success and Berry’s individual success, more of his players are getting looks to play college football.

Lorain's rapid turnaround just shows off the quality of football that gets played in the state of Ohio year in and year out. And it’s a huge reason why Meyer and his staff have put an added emphasis on keeping homegrown talents like Berry in the state to play their college football.

“You look at Ohio State and they focus on recruiting Ohio kids and they’re winning a national title so that says something for you right there,” McFarland said. “When you think about this great state and a Friday night in Ohio, the weather is changing, the leaves are turning colors and people are walking up to the local neighborhood football games, it’s pretty exciting. It’s a lot fun with the atmosphere, the great bands that play and the level of football, you just can’t beat it. It just seems like Ohio football has always been a part of our culture and I don’t see that changing.”