AN UNLIKELY PAIR: CANTON COUNCILMAN KEVIN FISHER & NEW ENGLAND PATRIOT OFFENSIVE COORDINATOR JOSH MCDANIELS?

VIDEO

JOSH MCDANIELS

HONORED

BY

CANTON CITY COUNCIL

AND

FORMER MCKINLEY CLASSMATE

COUNCILMAN KEVIN FISHER

The photos above (provided the SCPR by Fisher) are of Ward 5 Canton City Councilman Kevin Fisher and New England Patriot offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels, a former Canton McKinley football star, when they were in high school.

Last week at the beginning of Canton's council meeting, Canton City Council member voted unanimously to honor McDaniels for the fame that he as brought to the Pro Football Hall of Fame city in being the member of the coaching staff of the 2014-2015 edition of the Patriots who won the Super Bowl in dramatic fashion.

While Josh was not born in Canton (rather, Barberton), his father says that he considers Canton as being his hometown.

The interesting twist to this Stark County Political Report blog is that Fisher should sponsor the forgoing informal resolution and be the councilperson making the presentation on March 9th to Josh's father and longtime McKinley football coach (1982 - 1997) Thom McDaniels.

Interesting twist?

Indeed!

While Kevin and Josh graduated together from McKinley (named after the sister of President William McKinley), they were miles apart in terms of academics, athletics and accomplishment as students at McKinley.

McDaniels' McKinley High School (MHS) bio:

• Boys Basketball, grades 9 and 11,
• Canton Scholars, grade 12,
• Class officer, Vice President, grade 9,
• Computer assistant, grade 9,
• Football, grades 9, 10, 11 & 12,
• Captain, grade 12,
• International Club, grades 10 & 11,
• Office assistant, grades 11 & 12,
• Saxton, grade 12,
• National Honor Society, grades 11 & 12,
• Spanish Honorary, grade 11,
• Student Council Vice President, grades 9, 10, 11 & 12,
• Teen Board, grades 11 & 12

Fisher's MHS bio?

Get this:

Proof enough that while they were both at McKinley through high school, they were worlds apart, no?

In not, then let Kevin Fisher speak for himself:

Marty,

I have been trying to think how to frame your request for a snapshot of Mckinley when Josh and I attended.

What i think is best is to show a comparison between the two of us at that time... .

Its pretty interesting,  actually,  in my opinion because Josh and I had such drastically different backgrounds and experiences in school.

For one, I didn't really know Josh. McKinley was much bigger back then (I would guess about 3500 to 4000 students).  I've included 5 pics from the yearbook for you...including a list of extracurricular activities for each.

As you can  see, Josh was very involved as a student, an athlete and socially.

I on the other hand "attended" high school only  in a technical sense.

While being long-winded even back then, the fact that i spoke a lot in school didn't translate into really knowing anyone. 

I didn't run with any particular crowds, nor did I associate with people outside of school.

Associating inside of school was rare in fact, as my attendance was scarce at best.

Where josh was a national honor society member, I managed to graduate with the bare minimum number of credits.

In fact, I did not even attend my graduation ceremony,  opting instead to take an extra shift at work.

So, where Josh received an academic scholarship to John Carroll  where he continued to play football,  I went to work at a series of assembly lines and retail stores, mostly earning minimum wage for the next 3 to 4 years.

I guess showing up and doing homework may have been the better call...lol

The one thing we both seemed to have in common was an intense love for Canton and McKinley sports.

So, 20 years later...I find myself sponsoring a proclamation honoring my classmate.

While on the surface,  some may see this and think that it a councilman honoring a high school buddy who made good, the truth is it is more a story about how McKinley HS has a way of uniting people from different worlds, even if they are from the same city.

Obviously, Fisher did not apply himself in high school.

But he has certainly made up for lost time over the past 20 years.

The SCPR considers Fisher as among a group of Canton Councilpersons The Report has tabbed as being "the four young turks," (Fisher, Mack, Mariol and Morris), he and his compatriots are the future for Canton in terms of getting the Hall of Fame city back to any semblance of her former glory.

He is and continues to be a difference maker in the process of slowly but surely bringing Canton back from the abyss.

Of course, the SCPR does not have access to Josh McDaniels for purposes of this blog, but yours truly has to think that Josh has to be proud of the work of Councilman Kevin Fisher on projects like the Hall of Fame Village endeavor as part of a citywide comprehensive plan to restore city to being one of the great cities in Ohio and indeed in America.

They may have been worlds apart in high school.

But they are united not only as McKinley forever football fans but in making their hometown of Canton, Ohio the better for having walked the streets that President William McKinley once walked.

Here is the video of Councilman Kevin Fisher making the presentation to Josh's father Thom of Canton City Council's informal resolution honoring one Josh McDaniels: