Recruiting is said to be the lifeblood of college football. This series will countdown the top 100 high schools in Ohio that have provided the Buckeyes with football players. The rankings are based on how many times a player from each high school has been listed on Ohio State's roster between 1970 and 2018.
No. 21, Lancaster
Qualification
9 players from Lancaster have been listed on 27 Ohio State rosters.
QB Rex Kern (1970) Led the Buckeyes to the 1968 national championship as a sophomore and won 3 Big Ten titles. Was named the MVP of the 1969 Rose Bowl, was an All-American in 1969, and the captain of the 1970 team. Kern was also an Academic All-Big Ten player in 1970 and Ohio State was 27–2 with him as quarterback.
He was inducted into the Ohio State Athletics Hall of Fame in 1978, named to the Ohio State All-Century Team in 2000 and inducted into the College Hall of Fame in 2007. The Colts selected Kern in the 10th round of the 1971 NFL Draft. At Lancaster, Kern was an All-Ohioan in football, basketball and baseball.
LB Bobby Carpenter (2002-05) was on the 2002 national championship team (played in every game that season) and won two Big Ten titles. He earned three gold pants and the Buckeyes were 43–8 with Carpenter on the team. He was a second team All-Big Ten selection twice. He started 26 times and finished his time in Columbus with 191 tackles, 23.5 TFL and 14.5 sacks. The Cowboys selected Carpenter with the 18th overall pick of the 2006 NFL Draft.
Earned All-Ohio honors and had 128 tackles, and 12 TFL as a senior for the Golden Gales. You may not know that Carpenter competed in the 50m and 100m for the swim team and liked to play the piano.
OL Jim Cordle (2005-09) Honored four times as an Academic All-Big Ten member, was a three-year starter and enrolled to Ohio State in the spring of his senior year of high school.
The Giants signed Cordle as an undrafted free agent and he was with the team between 2010 and 2013. He part of the team that won Super Bowl XLVI. Today, Cordle is the offensive line coach and run game coordinator for Urbana University.
At Lancaster, Cordle was an All-Ohioan as a junior and senior. He played his first two years at Fisher Catholic.
| No. | POS | PLAYER | YEARS | OHIO STATE CAREER | HS CAREER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | QB | REX KERN | 1970 | See above.. | See above.. |
| 26 | HB | JOE DeFILLIPPO | 1972 | Had a knee injury as a freshman and was on the team for 1 season, but did not play. | All-Ohio HB. |
| 39, 43 | RB | BARRY WALKER | 1982-86 | Had "a seemingly endless series of injuries" that kept him off the field. Played in 45 games and started 5. Finished with 71 carries for 335 yards and a TD. 4-time Academic All-Big Ten player. | Gained 1,129 yards as a senior. Graduated with the school record with a shot put of 67' 10.75". |
| 64 | OG | BEN GILBERT | 1996-99 | Started 37 consecutive games and sealed the key block on Michael Wiley's 53-yard TD run the 1998 version of The Game. | All-Ohioan in football and won 2 state titles in the shot put. |
| 42 | LB | BOBBY CARPENTER | 2002-05 | See above.. | See above.. |
| 64 | OL | JIM CORDLE | 2005-09 | See above.. | See above.. |
| 42 | LB | LUKE ROBERTS | 2012 | Enrolled early at Ohio State (spring quarter 2012), but transferred to Harvard to play and earn an Ivy League degree. | All-OCC and All-District player, recorded 118 tackles, 19 TFL and 5 sacks as a senior. |
| 71 | OL | KYLE TROUT | 2014-16 | Redshirted in 2014 and was a scout team player in 2015. Transferred to Cincinnati in January of 2017. | Rated as a Top 25 tackle and 2-time All-Ohioan. |
Back To School
Lancaster is located in Fairfield County and is currently in the Ohio Capital Conference. The team competes in Division I, Region 3. The Golden Gales went 6–4 last year. 2016 was the last time Lancaster made the playoffs. They lost to host Huber Heights Wayne, 52-7, in the first round.
Notable
Lancaster has won 3 state titles. Boys' cross country has two (1990, 1979) and boys' track and field has one (1980).
The school is the only one in the state with the nickname Golden Gales.
Famous Alumni
Famous names you may know: NFL players Faye Abbott and Rob Carpenter (current Lancaster head coach), MLB players Allan Anderson and Jim Waugh, former Nebraska head coach Bill Glassford, PGA golfer Joe Ogilvie, Actor David Graf (Officer Tackleberry of Police Academy), cryptozoologist, explorer and doctor of neurospychology Marc Wolfgang Miller, designer of America's fifty-star flag, Robert Heft.
Explanation of the Rankings
School "A" had 14 players appear 16 times on Ohio State's roster. School "B" had 11 players appear 20 times on Ohio State's roster. School "B" will have the higher ranking. Why? Even though school "B" has less players, those players played for more years.
If two or more schools have the same number of appearances, the tie will be broken by the school with the highest average of roster appearances per player. If there is a tie in the average, the tie breaker will be the school with the most prominent Ohio State player.
2,813 days since Ohio State has not defeated That Team.
113 days until The Game.
Are you a former player, graduate, live near or have something to add about today's featured high school? Please share your story with us in the comments. What makes the 11W community unique is the amount of great information everybody is willing to share.
