X’s and O’s often determine wins and losses, but it’s the “how” that usually determines where and when the games are decided.
For Alexander football this year, an undefeated start might be the result of an executed game plan, but that execution results from what coach Sean Arno calls “experiences.”
Alexander is off to a 6-0 start this season. The Spartans’ impressive start includes two shutouts and a combined six-game score of 306-57.
In the coaching realm, experiences in west Cleveland helped shape Arno and have helped bring wins to the Spartans.
Arno was an assistant coach at Division 1 Elyria High School for nine years from 1995 to 2009. The association of two men, Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association hall of famer Mitch Gilliam and 1983 Greater Cleveland Football Coach of the Year Dick Kerschbaum, helped shape Arno’s philosophy.
“Dick Kerschbaum is the reason I’m a coach,” Arno said. “Dick Kerschbaum is the most fatherly human being I’ve ever had. He showed me the softer side of what it is to coach football.”
Arno coached under Kerschbaum at Elyria as the freshman coach and as an assistant in many positions during the later years.
While influential coaches have molded him, Arno said he believes his experiences have translated to his team’s success on the field.
“People’s experiences make them as coaches and people,” Arno said. “So it doesn’t make me a better coach to have coached D-I athletes. What makes me a better coach was that I was exposed to a lot of different coaches and coaching styles.”
Coaching has also taken form on the field among the team’s leaders. Senior right guard Michael Douglas said team members can rely on each other to step up when necessary.
“If skill guys tell us that they need better blocking, we pick certain stuff up, and if we tell them they need to hustle, they pick it up so we feed well off each other,” he said.
What matters more to Arno than where he is coaching is that he is coaching.
“Football is football, and it’s relevant to what you’re coaching and what you can and cannot do based on your talent,” he said. “The kids down here are just as good as the kids up there in many ways and better.”
Arno said part of the reason he came home to Southeast Ohio was the challenge of coaching those who might be less privileged in some ways because the process is rewarding.
“It’s about learning,” Arno said. “It’s not about that I coached at D-I programs, it’s not about the (D-I) kids I coached. The kids have worked their butt off to get here, and that is where we are.”
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