Southeast Ohio has always belonged to the ’Cats, but soon there will be a new Dawg in town.
Nelsonville will soon boast a semi-professional football team, which will be part of the Gridiron Developmental Football League. The league, formed in 2010, has more than 80 teams stretching from nearby Lancaster to Florida.
The players and coaches are not paid unless they make the playoffs three years in a row. At that point, a team can move to the “professional” part
of the league.
Nelsonville will be a member of the Ohio Valley South Division in the Impact Conference. The players have jobs or go to school and play simply because they cannot give up the game they love.
Owner Charles Neill named his team the Devil Dawgs because of the intensity that the Marines maintained when they fought in World War II and out of respect for the armed forces. Neill, who served in Operation Desert Storm, works as the veteran outreach service coordinator at Hocking College.
He wants his team to bring that militaristic intensity to the field, which is why he asked Hocking College police chief Al Matthews to be his head coach.
“(Matthews) looked at me and said ‘We’re going to win it,’ ” Neill said.
Matthews was referring to the GDFL championship. That confidence assured Neill he made the right choice for a head coach.
How Neill came to the realization of owning a football team in the first place came from the urging of his wife.
“I used to sit on the couch and yell at Jim Tressel every Saturday and some of the pro teams every Sunday, saying ‘Give me a team, I can beat you,’ ” Neill said. “So she told me to either put up or shut up.”
Deciding to erect the team in Nelsonville was an easy decision for him to make, and the Devil Dawgs’ head coach agrees.
“What drew me to it was the strong football community, and I know there are quite a few athletes here,” Matthews said. “I just think we could shock the world with what we have here.”
Neill is confident he can make something special in Nelsonville and might even help the economy despite the new Nelsonville bypass that Neill said will choke out Nelsonville.
“To me, I’m bringing economy into the city because I’m bringing a professional team,” Neill said.
“Everybody likes football. After the game, they will go out to eat, buy gas, spend their money, so I’m trying to really help compensate for that.”
mk277809@ohiou.edu
