'He understood what it meant to wear the gold helmet for Columbian'

Football is life for some people. For a high school football coach grinding every day, watching film, setting practice plans, having a relationship with your players … it's not an easy profession. But the love for football shines through, and that certainly is the case for Columbian's Judd Lutz.Lutz, who played for Columbian in the early to mid 2000s, was a part of special TC teams under coach Steve Gilbert. The Tornadoes kept running into loaded teams that would knock them out of the playoffs including, Avon Lake and Toledo Central Catholic. So even with how good TC has been, it never made a state semifinal – until now.The Tornadoes (9-1) head to Brunswick High School tonight at 7 p.m. to take on No. 1 Chardon (10-0) in the Division III state semifinals.According to his players, the Tornadoes wouldn't be close to where they're at without coach Lutz."Coming from my freshman year, we went 0-10 … we lost everything," Columbian lineman Kane Mears said. "Coach Lutz always told us to buy in, keep chipping in, always put in the work everyday and don't slack off and that's how we've gotten to this point under that man's guidance and he shows us how hard we should work and to get better. "It's completely different, he seems aggressive up front and he'll let you know about what you did and give you a new butt, but at the end of the play, he'll come over correct you in a calm way and then next play, you fix it. Then he'll come over and congratulate you, its constant reinforcement from him. It's amazing."Running back Kesean Jackson added: "Coach Lutz is an amazing dude. We wouldn't be anywhere without him," he said. "He's turned this program around a lot from going 0-10 to 9-1 as we are right now." The turnaround was pretty quick. After an 0-10 season, the Tornadoes have made the playoffs three straight seasons, but this season its the year of firsts. In the previous two seasons, the Tornadoes have gone home after hosting a first-round playoff game. This year, amid the strange pandemic season, the Tornadoes won a playoff game for the first time since 2013, and are making their first appearance in a state semifinal."It's an historic one because we were close so many times," Gilbert said. "This was the fifth try in the final and they finally kicked the door down. It was just a matter of time. (Lutz) understands what it takes in the playoffs. A big thing about Judd, he understood what Columbian football was all about when we built the program from when he played and graduated in 2006. He understand what it meant to wear the gold helmet for Columbian. He was able to get that reestablished because we had lost it for a while, he was able to get that back."And the key I think people don't understand is how hard the kids work in the offseason to get ready for the season. He understands that."Lutz said he hoped he was a culmination of every coach he played for and coached under in his career to this point. But Gilbert said it was easy to tell just how special Lutz was before he was in high school."He was a leader when he was a player, but I remember when he was an eighth grader and we had him at our youth camp with his older brother Adam, and here's Judd running around, you could just tell back then that this kid was going to be special," Gilbert said. "And then through his high school career, he did a tremendous job, but his senior year he was helping the younger kids."He got the kids refocused on what Columbian football was all about and how the game was supposed to be played. Watching this year, he kept the tradition, we were always real quick on defense, we were never the biggest, but we could always run. That's what their defense is now. He's just able to keep the kids focused on the task at hand."Lutz played for Gilbert, Larry Kehres at Mount Union and then coached under Mike Elder at Avon, so his coaching influences are some of the best. He said he learned from a young age what coaching was all about."I was fortunate from a very young age to have very good coaches. I'm talking clear back in little league baseball with my buddy's dad where he was a screamer, yeller, most intense, but also a fundamentally-sound guy," Lutz said. "He set the tone: listen to what the coach says and not how they say it. I had great coaches even after that, basketball coaches, Brad and Brian Burns for the Storm, high school football every level, high school with coach Gilbert and his assistants and then to college with coach Larry Kehres and my position coach was Keith Wakefield, who is the coach at Perry high school, who will be in the high school Hall of Fame if he isn't already. Then going to Avon and getting to coach under the best high school coach in the state of Ohio in my opinion, Mike Elder. "I believe I'm hopefully a culmination of all the great parts of those guys and obviously some of my own defaults throw in as well."Lutz's coaching philosophy is all about relationships with his players. Of course, winning and playing the right way are part of it, but to know the players and what they are going through is mission No. 1 he said. "I think it all starts with relationships. I try to be a great teacher first and hiring great teachers as well and great teachers are people that have great relationships with people they are trying to mentor and help because a lot of people don't care what you have to say until they know you care about them," he said. "We have to make sure our players know we care about them as people, as men first. "Our goals are to win the league, qualify for the playoffs and then win a state championship. Those will always be our goals. But the mission is build great men first. Every tough or easy decision comes to that first. I'm blessed I have guys that have experienced wins and losses, who've come back and said that was awesome and that they are better men. The game of football helps with that but the people we surround them with does too."His players respect him and they know he's doing what is best for the team. That includes playing two quarterbacks all season. It's not something you see every day in football. Usually a team has a starter and a backup. Not two starters, but that's exactly what Columbian has in Logan Beaston and Brayden Roggow, a sophomore and a freshman."I won't say it's been super easy, but it was the right move," Lutz said. "Both deserved to keep playing. It's outstanding leadership by the QB coach and then it takes two outstanding kids to buy in and continue to flush out the selfishness or outside noise pouring into them, and so we have always looked at the positives of it. They don't have to be absolutely prefect every night for us to be successful. They can watch the game from the sideline for a series or two and take in the game mentally and then talking to each other sharing what they're seeing. "They are very mature kids who have been in a lot of big moments through a young athletic career, but I don't know anyone else who has ever done it, which it doesn't scare me and I don't think it can't work, so that's why I kept falling back on it. Kind of like when the Warriors started shooting all of those 3-pointers and everyone was saying this isn't going to work, and now they've re-written the NBA. I'm not saying we are rewriting football by playing two quarterbacks by any means, but we've shown that with the right kids you can do just about anything."The two quarterbacks echoed Lutz's beliefs."Every day was a competition, and I think it helped both of us because neither of us knew we were the guy," Beaston said. "Still to this day, it's a competition, we are great off the field and love each other, but its a competition every day and I think it's helped both of us play significantly better because since Day 1, you look at our progress and it's crazy to see how many steps we've taken forward."Roggow added: "It's what is best for the team. We both play really well at times and at times during a game I'm not playing well, he steps up, if he's not playing well, I step up," he said. "Helps us both because we know we're both good quarterbacks and we support each other and it makes this team better. We just bought into it. We love each other and we want the best for each other."Whether it's been his past experience, tutelage or his own beliefs and choices as a coach to this point, Lutz is quickly cementing himself into Columbian coaching lore. With this team having such a young core, Lutz might just be getting started.