- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,206,724
- Reaction score
- 59
At the same time Ryan Sayers reflected on six largely successful seasons with Northland’s football program, he relished the excitement and challenge of bringing a similar resurgence to a burgeoning district just down the road.
A few hours after announcing his resignation from Northland on Jan. 7, Sayers confirmed that he will be the next coach at Licking Heights, pending school board approval.
“I see a growing community that is really invested in their athletics,” Sayers said. “They have a very good plan in place to make athletics great there. I am excited to be a one high school community where we can have the feeder from the middle school and the little league can feed to the middle school. That’s what really excited me about it.
“The administration has the same vision as I do for the program and seeing how invested they are, that made it a no-brainer.”
Sayers succeeds Austin Drewyor, who went 8-23 in three seasons with the Hornets.
Sayers went 34-27 overall and 27-5 in City League play at Northland, including outright or shared City-North titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and second-place finishes in 2021 and 2025.
The Vikings made the playoffs five times under Sayers, earning the program’s first postseason home game in 2023.
That was Northland’s best season in his tenure, as the Vikings went 9-2 overall and 6-0 in the City-North.
They were 7-4 overall and 5-1 in the league this year, tying Linden-McKinley for second place, a game behind East, but remained winless in the playoffs with a 50-6 loss at North Canton Hoover in Division II, Region 7.
Northland, which is 0-6 all-time in the postseason, won its final five regular-season games after a 26-0 loss to East on Sept. 18 to earn the 11th seed in the region, which also includes Licking Heights.
“Today was a tough day telling our players,” Sayers said. “It was so emotional because I invested so much into Northland. We left it in a way better spot than we found it, and the emotion from the kids showed the impact. We won the (City-North) three years straight. We hosted the first-ever (home) playoff game at Northland. We took them to heights they’d never seen.”
Heights has three playoff trips (2021, 2022, 2024) in the past five seasons but has not won a postseason game since 2015.
Board approval is expected Jan. 13. Sayers plans to meet his players the next week and launch the offseason program.
Sayers’ resignation makes Northland the ninth central Ohio program to face a coaching change this offseason.
Tyris Diehl and Tom Phillips have taken over at Centennial and Newark Catholic, respectively.
Amanda-Clearcreek, Lancaster, Walnut Ridge, Westfall and Worthington Christian have yet to announce new hires.
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at [email protected] and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Licking Heights hires Northland football coach after resignation
Continue reading...
A few hours after announcing his resignation from Northland on Jan. 7, Sayers confirmed that he will be the next coach at Licking Heights, pending school board approval.
“I see a growing community that is really invested in their athletics,” Sayers said. “They have a very good plan in place to make athletics great there. I am excited to be a one high school community where we can have the feeder from the middle school and the little league can feed to the middle school. That’s what really excited me about it.
“The administration has the same vision as I do for the program and seeing how invested they are, that made it a no-brainer.”
Sayers succeeds Austin Drewyor, who went 8-23 in three seasons with the Hornets.
You must be registered for see images attach
Sayers went 34-27 overall and 27-5 in City League play at Northland, including outright or shared City-North titles in 2022, 2023 and 2024 and second-place finishes in 2021 and 2025.
The Vikings made the playoffs five times under Sayers, earning the program’s first postseason home game in 2023.
That was Northland’s best season in his tenure, as the Vikings went 9-2 overall and 6-0 in the City-North.
They were 7-4 overall and 5-1 in the league this year, tying Linden-McKinley for second place, a game behind East, but remained winless in the playoffs with a 50-6 loss at North Canton Hoover in Division II, Region 7.
Northland, which is 0-6 all-time in the postseason, won its final five regular-season games after a 26-0 loss to East on Sept. 18 to earn the 11th seed in the region, which also includes Licking Heights.
“Today was a tough day telling our players,” Sayers said. “It was so emotional because I invested so much into Northland. We left it in a way better spot than we found it, and the emotion from the kids showed the impact. We won the (City-North) three years straight. We hosted the first-ever (home) playoff game at Northland. We took them to heights they’d never seen.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Heights has three playoff trips (2021, 2022, 2024) in the past five seasons but has not won a postseason game since 2015.
Board approval is expected Jan. 13. Sayers plans to meet his players the next week and launch the offseason program.
Sayers’ resignation makes Northland the ninth central Ohio program to face a coaching change this offseason.
Tyris Diehl and Tom Phillips have taken over at Centennial and Newark Catholic, respectively.
Amanda-Clearcreek, Lancaster, Walnut Ridge, Westfall and Worthington Christian have yet to announce new hires.
High school sports reporter Dave Purpura can be reached at [email protected] and at @dp_dispatch on X.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Licking Heights hires Northland football coach after resignation
Continue reading...
