11/06/2025

Tailgate concludes Wildcats’ Special Olympics season

J. Patrick Eaken

NORTH BALTIMORE — If you think you have already been to the best football tailgate ever, you may have wanted to check out the tailgate party before, during, and after Wood County Wildcats’ Special Olympics next to last flag football game.

The Wildcats, state tournament qualifiers in 2024, finished off their 2025 season under the lights on October 22 at North Baltimore High School taking on the NB Fire Department.

Exactly one week earlier at Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities’ main campus, the Wildcats took on the WCBDD staff with a full tailgate on hand.

If you don’t think this game is taking seriously, listen to one of the Wildcats’ players, Andrew “A.J.”, or “Patrick Mahomes” Fritz talk strategy after his team lost the first of two games to the staff.

“We just needed to turn some things around, walk some things off, is what we needed to do,” Fritz said. “If we want to do a series split, we just stick with what we need to stick with, change things up if we have to, but if we do what we do the best that we can, I think we may be able to split the series.

“The strategy was to make good plays,” Fritz continued. “We just needed moments to score and on defense, we needed to stick with our guy. We can’t let these guys get the ball. We need to pick it off.”

The Wildcats began the season with an assessment of potential players the first week of September, had a couple weeks of practices for the Blue and Skills Team and the Silver Team. Then came games for the Silver Team against Lucas County, Henry County, Williams County, Marion County, and Defiance County.

It all started auspiciously five years ago when flag football became a sport sanctioned by Special Olympics Ohio, and it has grown. WCBDD Superintendent Brent Baer said Wood County had to get in on the action.

“What happened the first year is there weren’t a lot of teams in all of Northwest Ohio, so our staff said we’ll get together and create a night of additional competition for the athletes,” Baer said. “Then honestly, it was so much fun — really for me it feels like sixth grade recess all over again, right? So, who doesn’t want to get back to childhood and celebrate sixth grade recess?”

Immediately after the Wildcats’ regular season ended, to prepare for the postseason, they took on “Brent’s friends” during a scrimmage, then came the matchup against the WCBDD staff, with a few local celebrities and politicians thrown in to play for the staff.

“Our staff, we all kind of signed up, and you could see we had over 25 staff rotating in and playing the game,” Baer said. “So, we give a tailgate to give the full experience. The athletes bring so much joy to the table, and then we get a chance to join in on that. It’s just nothing but fun.”

For one of the Wildcats, Gene Stokes, it was all about getting to play against Baer.

“(My mission) was playing against Brent because I love playing against Brent and one of my former teammates, Zach Parcher — the tall guy. Brent is my buddy,” Stokes said.

Baer said, “My friend Gene here plays his heart out. There is a lot of hustle out there.”

The final two games against the WCBDD staff and the NB Fire Department play like the Wildcats’ postseason bowl games.

However, in 2024, the Wildcats qualified for the Special Olympics State Flag Football Tournament at The Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio. Players on that team were Fritz, Stokes, Parcher, Brandyn Broshious, Cory Barnett, Gavin Coonrod, George Dutton, Joel Hernandez, Mike Nuzum, and Trent Murphy.

This year, the flag football state tournament was held October 25 at Bo Jackson Elite Sports in HIlliard, Ohio.