Message Is Clear – Valentine Was a Special Coach and Person
April 7, 2006

Cell phones, text messaging, the internet, cable television and the web. What a smorgasbord of communication options. Have we ever had it better?

To be honest, yes. Take your pick of any of the above and they would be second rate compared to former Ashland University assistant football coach and health and physical education instructor John Valentine. When it came to communication, Valentine’s signal came through loud and clear. The message he delivered was powerful and priceless and it never went out of style.

Valentine, who died Wednesday (April 5) at age 73, served as the defensive coordinator under head coach Fred Martinelli from 1965-84. During those years, the Ashland defense consistently ranked among the best in the region and the country. Ashland football was known for its ability to play well-disciplined, physical football year after year. In 1972 Ashland led the nation in scoring defense, permitting just 5.6 ppg. Valentine, a member of the AU Hall of Fame, was the architect of that defense and others that erected more stop signs than the Ohio Department of Transportation.

“He had that personal relationship with kids,” said Martinelli when asked about Valentine’s key to success. “He got the maximum effort out of them. Kids knew John and related to John. They would do things for him. He brought loyalty to Ashland that was very unusual.”

“John was a star, but he never wanted the stardust,” explained former AU coach, athletic director and professor Bob Stokes. “He never wanted credit for anything. He was just a wonderful man. They don’t make them like John anymore.”

Valentine’s greatest strength was his ability to reach people from all walks of life. That ability to get through to all sorts of people helped him as a coach and teacher.

“He impacted students other than those in football,” continued Martinelli. “He was our tennis coach, he taught and he treated all the students exactly the same – it was tough love. He had certain standards as a teacher and coach that students had to adhere to.”

What mighty standards Valentine had as a defensive coach. That 1972 defense allowed more than 10 points twice in 11 games and gave up a total of nine points in the season’s final four weeks. That team finished 11-0.

In 1967 the Eagles were 8-0-1 and allowed 8.6 ppg. The 1980 season saw the Eagles win a share of their first Heartland Conference championship with a defense that held five teams to seven points or less. When Ashland claimed its first outright Heartland Conference crown in 1982 the Eagles led the league in rush defense (44.9 ypg.) and were second in total defense (253.9 ypg.) and scoring defense (12.4 ppg.).

“My, could he work a sideline, prepare for a game, work the game,” raved Martinelli. “John and I had unbelievable communication. We meshed. He knew what I was thinking and I knew what he was thinking. It was just great communication between us.”

“He could really make adjustments,” explained former AU All-America Dan Fuller. “Not just adjustments at halftime, but adjustments series to series. He’d come over to us on the bench and say, ‘This is what they’re trying to do, this is what we need to do.’ He could really see the field.”

Valentine proved throughout his Ashland tenure that he knew how to take great players and put them in positions where they could thrive. From 1981 to 1984, Ashland had the Heartland Conference defensive lineman of the year three times in a four-year stretch. Those recipients were Fuller, Tom Bishop and Valentine’s son, Scott, now the head football coach at Ashland High School. All three of those players earned All-America honors. That’s just a sampling of a long list of decorated football players who starred under Valentine.

“He had a great ability to get the most out of you,” Fuller stated. “He was a master of knowing what buttons to push. Everyone wanted to play for him, you wanted to run through a wall for him. He knew how to utilize everyone, everyone had an important part to play in the defense.

“We just had a great desire to get after it,” said Fuller, recounting the successful seasons of the early 1980’s. “We wanted to have a dominating defense. We figured we needed to have a shutout or at most, give up three points. We had a close-knit group, we had a lot of pride in defense and that went back to Coach V. I think the tradition of great defense at Ashland started with Coach V.”

Most football fans have seen defensive coaches who roam the sidelines, looking as if their eyes will pop out of their head at any minute, their faces as red as tomatoes in mid-July. That wasn’t Valentine’s style.

“I don’t remember him punching any chalkboards or kicking any garbage cans,” said Fuller. “It was a matter of mutual respect between him and the players. The other defensive coaches bought into what he was doing. We trusted him and what he was doing. He didn’t raise his voice very much.”

“That was his strength,” offered Stokes, who was Ashland’s defensive coordinator prior to Valentine. “He could get so mad, and then a minute later, be so calm.”

Ashland University head coach Lee Owens first met Valentine when he was a high school coach in the area. Some of his early lessons in defensive football came from Valentine.

“He had a charisma and enthusiasm for the game that was impressive,” said Owens. “His knowledge of defense was unbelievable. What we’re trying to build here defensively is his tradition. Ashland has played great defense for years because of coaches like Coach Valentine.

“All of his former players I’ve run into since I’ve been at Ashland, they talk about how great it was to play for him,” Owens added. “They knew he cared for them not just as players, but as people. You only had to be in his presence a short time to know how sincere he was.”

Before coming to Ashland, Valentine had been successful as a prep coach. He was the head football coach at Mansfield Madison where he won a pair of Cardinal Conference championships.

“When I called John and asked him whether he wanted to coach at Ashland College he said, ‘When do I start?” said Martinelli. “That was his attitude, not ‘What’s the salary, what are the responsibilities.’ John was just a great teacher and coach.”

A 1951 graduate of Circleville (OH) High School, Valentine earned all-state honors on the gridiron. He received a football scholarship from Bowling Green and he lettered two years as an offensive lineman. In addition to receiving his undergraduate degree from Bowling Green, he earned his master’s degree from that institution.

While Valentine is best known to those off campus for his work on the gridiron, he was also highly effective in the classroom. He was cited as the health and physical education department’s instructor of the year several times.

“You could always count on John to be supportive of the department’s needs,” said former department chairperson Dr. Ella Shannon. “I never, ever had a student problem with John. Students just never had a problem with John. He was just a fine man, a gentleman.”

“He did a great job,” added Stokes. “He really helped me with our graduate program. He would go anyplace and teach. Some of our people, they didn’t want to do that. John would go anyplace.”

That was Valentine, a man for all people and places. His message traveled well then and his legacy will continue to carry that forward today.