And with good reason. The man originally took the football job in 1971, when the Panthers were still in the Suburban League, and held it through ’84, then became coach again in 1986 and has remained ever since. He has been principal since 1985.

 

This is his 40th year overall at Manchester, his 39th as football coach and his 25th as principal. In that last role, he stands at the school’s main entrance every morning and, with his personality as an ex-Marine coming out, calmly but steadfastly enforces the school’s dress code, showing no favoritism as he sends home kids – whether they be the star quarterback, the captain of the cheerleaders or the child of a teacher in the district -- for a change of clothes if they fail to measure up. It is the equivalent of making a player run laps if he jumps the snap count.

 

A false start to the school day, and on the football field. Try again.

 

The place where the Panthers play football was re-named James R. France Stadium in 1989. That was the same year that the school’s athletic hall of fame, named originally for France’s predecessor as football coach, Les “Swede” Olsson (more on him in a bit), took on France’s name as well.

Indeed, when you think of Manchester or Manchester High School now, you think of Jim France, who will turn 67 on Sept. 18. He and the school and community are indelibly linked. In the mind’s eye, they are one in the same.

 

That’s what happens when you have a career record at Manchester of 319-74-3 (.817), and a 322-81-3 mark overall, placing you second overall in victories among active Ohio high school football coaches.

 

That’s what happens when, since 1989, your teams have won 16 Principals Athletic Conference championships, including 13 in a row at one point, and 18 league titles overall, and when you’ve made 17 state playoff appearances.

 

That’s what happens when your 1997 team made the Division IV state championship, losing 31-24 to Germantown Valley View in five overtimes in one of the greatest postseason contests in Ohio high school history.

 

That’s what happens when your squads once won 49 home games in a row.

 

That’s what happens when your teams won 25 games in a row overall during one stretch.

 

That’s what happens when, remarkably, your teams have never had a losing season, the “worst” being a pair of 5-5 finishes in an injury-plagued 1979 and then again in 2007, which seemed like the end of the world considering the standard of excellence that has been established in the program.

 

And that’s what happens when you’re one of the better football coaches in state high school history.

 

 

But there was a time – albeit years ago, even decades ago – when there was no connection at all between France and Manchester. In fact, he no idea where the place was while he attending Springfield High School – located not that far away -- in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

 

“I had heard of Manchester, but for a long time, I had never been there,” said France, who starred in football, basketball and baseball at Springfield before graduating in 1962. “There was another kid from my church who was from down that way, but he lived in Green.

 

“I remember when I was sophomore, we had a basketball scrimmage at Manchester. Not knowing how far away it was, I remember thinking, ‘Do I need to pack a lunch?’ ”

 

Even after France first got into teaching and coaching at Springfield during the 1968-69 school year, Manchester and the head football coaching job weren’t even on the horizon for him. In fact, it seemed like going to Manchester High School – and being the coach of the Panthers – were two things he definitely wouldn’t be doing.

 

From Springfield, he went to Coventry the following school year, serving as an assistant in both football and basketball.

 

“I was brought in to be the head basketball coach,” France said. “The program was struggling, and they were going to fire the coach at the end of that season (1969-70).

 

“But then at the end of that (1969) football season, they ended up firing the football coach, too, because that program also wasn’t doing well. I really wanted to be a football coach – that was my preference – so I applied for the football opening. They didn’t like that because I was messing up their plans for the basketball team, but I got the job anyway.”

 

His 1970 Comets ended 3-7, a marked improvement over the records they had been having then.

Included in that was an 8-2 loss to Manchester in an extremely physical late-season game.

 

“After the game, Swede met me at midfield and said, ‘You guys kicked the heck out of us,’ ” France said. “I really respected Swede, so to be a young coach and have a guy like that give you a nice compliment, that meant a lot.”

 

Olsson wasn’t the only person in Manchester who was being impressed by France’s work with the Comets. So was Manchester Schools Superintendent Dr. Robert Stabile.

 

“They used to have a thing at Chaboudy’s Restaurant (in Coventry Twp.) the week of the Manchester-Coventry game every year where they’d have a dinner and bring in both coaches to talk about their team and the game,” France said. “I went, but Swede didn’t show. Here he had announced he was retiring from coaching at the end of the year.

 

“Dr. Stabile was there, though, and told me that if I wanted to make a move, to keep Manchester in mind.

 

“Coventry at the time was having all kinds of levy and money problems. The superintendent and the principal came to me and said they’d like to sign me to a five-year contract, which was unheard of. They wanted to have me in place for the new people coming in. Here I found out that both of them were headed to Revere.

 

“That kind of scared me. The situation at Coventry seemed so unsettled. Manchester seemed so much more stable to me, so when Dr. Stabile called me and urged me to apply for the football job, I did.”

 

And France was hired.

 

 

 

That was the good news for France. The bad news was that he was a young (he wasn’t quite 28), untested coach who had the mountain-sized challenge of trying to follow in the footsteps of the iconic Olsson, who had been at Manchester for 25 years as only the second football coach in the school’s history.

 

Olsson, a large man who sported suspenders, a flat-top haircut and horn-rimmed glasses, had been an All-NFL guard with the Washington Redskins in 1938. He came to the school in 1946, taking over a fledgling program that had been just 8-23 (.258) in its first four years of existence, and turned Manchester into an area power with a career mark of 131-82-7 (.611).

 

How was France, a virtual unknown who had exactly three career wins to his credit and a winning percentage of but .300, going to replace someone like Olsson and keep the program going?

 

And furthermore, how was someone who had been hired at Coventry to be the basketball coach, going to come to Manchester and succeed in football? Then as now, the two schools were bitter rivals. That aforementioned 1970 Manchester-Coventry game, which, according to one player, had to be stopped repeatedly to stop all the little scuffles and squabbles, was played on Saturday afternoon, the daylight keeping things a little safer than they otherwise might have been on a Friday night. That relationship – or lack thereof -- is why the teams didn’t play for nearly 20 years.

 

As such, Manchester fans really didn’t want a Coventry guy coaching their team, just as Coventry fans would not have wanted a Manchester guy coaching their team. As Michigan’s Bo Schembechler, then retired as football coach and serving as the school’s athletic director, said one time when the Wolverines basketball coach wanted to stay on and finish out the season after he had already been hired to take a job at another school for the following year, “A Michigan man should coach Michigan.”

 

It would be like a Coke executive going to Pepsi, or one from Macy’s going to Gimbels back in the day. People just didn’t do that. The feeling between Manchester and Coventry was so strong then that they never exchanged pleasantries, let alone football coaches.

 

“We (Manchester) were probably just as responsible for the problems as they (Coventry) were, to be honest,” France pointed out.

 

Thus, it seemed like a recipe for disaster – a short-lived tenure that would produce another coaching search at Manchester in just a few years. After all, there was only Swede Olsson. It wasn’t like another one was going to come walking in the door and drop into Manchester’s lap as if he had fallen out of the sky.

 

“I never really thought about having to follow him,” France said.

 

It wasn’t that he did – or didn’t – think it would be difficult. It’s just, as he put it, that he was simply too busy trying to coach.

 

 

 

What no one realized at the time was that Manchester was substituting one coaching legend for another – that the program wouldn’t go backward, but would actually get a little better, which is really something considering what the Panthers were under Olsson for a quarter-century.

 

Yes, four decades later, France is still at it, and is going strong – maybe stronger than ever. The Panthers run the same offensive and defensive plays they did when France arrived, but run them so well that they are nearly impossible to stop. They are still wearing the same all-black uniforms, and all-black helmets, with the red stripe down the middle, that they did when Olsson was getting started. Not even that has changed over the years.

 

Wearing things – doing things – the same way for all these decades, getting it down to a science, is what has made Manchester one of the most consistent programs in Ohio. To win year in and year out at a Division IV school, where enrollment is always going to be an issue, is so much harder than it looks. Manchester fans saw in 1985 how difficult a task it is. France had to step down from coaching that year when he became principal. The Panthers went 2-8 – their first losing season since 1968, at the end of the Olsson era – and had but 17 players on the roster at the end of the year.

 

France, who turned things right back around in a positive direction once he and his staff returned – at the urging of the public – in 1986, will tell you he has had a lot of help over the years. It comes from both the players, who, in typical Manchester style, always are tough and play bigger than their size, and the assistant coaches.

 

As for the coaches, this is Jim Robinson’s 38th year on the staff and 25th as defensive coordinator, and if you know anything about Manchester football, you know how important a speedy, heady and attacking defense is to the overall success of the team. Following John McDowell, who had the job from 1950-82, coaching the defense while Olsson coached the offense on what was basically a two-man staff, Robinson is, in essence, only the second defensive coordinator in Panthers history. How many schools can say their defense has been coached by just two men since the end of the Truman administration?

 

Then there’s offensive assistant and special teams coach Scott Cantrell, who is in his 26th season at Manchester, and Jason France, a former quarterback for his father 20 years ago who is in 18th campaign as a coach. John Forret is the newcomer – a mere rookie -- in being in only his 10th year. Vic Nicodemo retired following the 2008 season, his 25th at Manchester.

 

With Robinson, Cantrell and Jason France, that’s 82 years of coaching, all at Manchester. Add in Jim France, and it’s 121. Go ahead, try to find another staff in Ohio that has more experience.

 

These men are so well-coordinated as a staff that they can finish each other’s sentences. Whereas other staffs meet on Saturday mornings or Sunday nights to game plan for the upcoming foes, Manchester hasn’t had to convene formally in 20 years. The coaches might stand together in a circle for five minutes to share ideas while the players are stretching before Monday’s practice, but that’s it. Each coach knows what his job is as far as preparation. He doesn’t have to sit in on a meeting to be told. After all, he’s been doing it for years, even decades in some instances.

 

 

 

France wants to continue coaching, and will do so as long as he still enjoys it, and as long as his health and that of his wife of nearly 46 years, Nancy, remains good. Nancy France has had two health issues in the last decade, including a stroke and a battle with cancer. But just like her husband, she’s tough and in for the long haul. So it will take a lot more than that to keep her away from Manchester games on Friday night. List her as probable for this season.

 

No doubt, she’s as much of an institution as the black uniforms, the stadium the Panthers have played in since 1957, or the presence of fans who gather in droves in the back yards of houses along Harter Home Drive, at the east end of the stadium, to watch the home games through the fence while sitting in lawn chairs around bonfires.

 

Those people are Manchester’s version of the Dawg Pound – Panthers style.

 

Even Jean France, Jim’s mother, was a longtime fan at the games until having some health problems of her own. Of course, when you’re going to turn 89 years young in November, you’re allowed to be on the injury list from time to time.

 

The whole operation at Manchester is inter-woven, and has been for years, going all the way back to the Olsson and McDowell days. It’s like an old blanket that might be thread-bare in places, but is so comfortable and does the job so well that it would never cross your mind to use anything else on a chilly Friday night.

 

“I do this because I want kids to be successful, and because I want them to have pride in their school and the football program,” France said.

 

How can they not have that pride? Manchester, football and success all follow along together, one right after the other, as if they were joined at the hip.

 

Well, maybe they are.

 

And it’s all because of the arrival of an almost basketball coach from the archrival school who once needed a road map to even find Manchester, let alone coach in it.

 

 

 

France’s principal’s office at the high school is crammed full with football, coaching and sports memorabilia. If he wants to display a new item, he’s got to remove another one to make room for it. Things are that packed that tightly.

 

These items trace back through his 40 years at Manchester and beyond. It sets up a display that’s kind of like a visual history book of what his coaching life has been like. Some of the stuff is almost priceless, it’s so good. You see a young Jim France in those photos and you giggle to yourself because you almost don’t recognize him. Has it really been that long?

 

His gait may be a bit slower, his hair may now include some flecks of gray, and his face may include the lines that come from standing on the sidelines in all kinds of weather all those years – always sans a hat – and telling 16- and 17-year-old boys how to run trap plays and counters, how to defend the run and blitz the quarterback and how, quite simply, to carry yourself when you’re wearing that uniform and being a Manchester football player.  

 

At one point during the 2½-hour interview with France, the coach got up out of the chair at his desk and opened a closet behind him. It, too, was stacked to the brim with all kinds of things. As he took an item out to show the visitor, the whole pile of books, plaques, photos, etc. came crashing into a heap.

 

Everything has a place, and everyplace has a thing. Don’t mess with it.

 

“I hope you know that when you retire – for good – you’re going to need a U-Haul to take all of this stuff home with you,” the visitor said.

 

“Yeah, I’ve thought about that,” France said simply without elaborating.

 

Hopefully, he hasn’t thought about it too long or too hard.

 

“We know how special we have it to be playing for this man,” senior linebacker/tailback/fullback Mark Noble said. “He’s a great coach who has years left to be here.”

 

Added senior linebacker/tight end Nick Miller, whose father, Doug Miller, was a star quarterback for France years ago, “Coach knows what he’s doing. He’s seen it all.”

 

And then some.

 

More specifically, he’s seen it all while at Manchester.

 

France leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment.

 

“You know, two-thirds of my life has been associated with Manchester,” he said. “It’s a great school and a great community.”

 

And a great place to coach – a great place for a man to come to and never leave.

 

Good thing, too, for when France does leave – and it will happen someday -- lest nearly everybody around, for the first time in their lives, will have to learn the name of a new football coach for the Manchester Panthers.

 

And you know how bad some people are with names, or with change in their lives.

 

 

***

 

To get an understanding of just how long Jim France has coached at Manchester and just how successful he’s been, here’s a year-by-year look at the Panthers’ won-loss records during his tenure:

 

1971 – 7-3

 

1972 – 8-2

 

1973 – 8-2

 

1974 – 7-3

 

1975 – 7-3

 

1976 – 8-1-1

 

1977 – 7-3

 

1978 – 7-3

 

1979 – 5-5

 

1980 – 8-2

 

1981 – 7-3

 

1982 – 7-3

 

1983 – 7-2-1

 

1984 – 8-1-1

 

1985 – out of coaching

 

1986 – 7-3

 

1987 – 9-1

 

1988 – 8-2

 

1989 – 11-1 (state playoffs)

 

1990 – 8-2

 

1991 – 10-1 (state playoffs)

 

1992 – 11-1 (state playoffs)

 

1993 – 9-2 (state playoffs)

 

1994 – 11-1 (state playoffs)

 

1995 – 9-2 (state playoffs)

 

1996 – 10-2 (state playoffs)

 

1997 – 12-1 (state playoffs, played in state championship game)

 

1998 – 10-1 (state playoffs)

 

1999 – 9-2 (state playoffs)

 

2000 – 10-2 (state playoffs)

 

2001 – 9-3 (state playoffs)

 

2002 -- 10-1

 

2003 – 7-4 (state playoffs)

 

2004 – 10-1 (state playoffs)

 

2005 – 10-2 (state playoffs)

 

2006 – 7-3

 

2007 – 5-5

 

2008 – 7-3

 

2009 – 9-2 (state playoffs)