Crooksville doing things the ‘Ceramic Way’ for 2025 season under new head coach
By: Andrew Bowlby
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CROOKSVILLE, Ohio (WOUB) – When Marcus Pardon-Dudash was hired in January to be the next head coach of the Crooksville Football program, he made one thing clear.
There would be a change in the culture the program possessed.
“Our culture is simple; just do it the Ceramic Way,” Pardon-Dudash said.
The new mantra includes doing everything with relentless effort, intentional focus and servant leadership. It’s a culture that Pardon-Dudash already believes his players are buying in to.
The need for a shift in culture comes from the revolving door at the head coaching position for the Ceramics program. Since the year 2000, Crooksville has had 10 head coaches, and that includes now four during the 2020s.
During the same two and a half decades the program has amassed just 91 wins for a .364 winning percentage. Consistent change in leadership has made success a challenge.
Now, Pardon-Dudash wants to fill the role and be a consistent presence for his players.
“I’m going to be here for these kids for a long time,” Pardon-Dudash said. “When they hired me, we’ve had four head coaches in 11 years, and I’ll do the next 11 myself.”
Although a turnaround in winning is necessary, it’s not what Pardon-Dudash is primarily focused on during his early months with the team. Rather, it’s building that culture which will ultimately allow for wins to come.
“I told them day one, my job is not to win football games. They’ve hired someone who cares less about football then he does about young people,” Pardon-Dudash said. “We will win when these kids decide they want to win. When they want to buy into the culture and do things the right way, we will win.”
Part of starting to win games for Crooksville will likely come from the Ceramics new offense. Pardon-Dudash comes from Fairfield Christian Academy where he led the Knights from 2022-2024. Excluding the 2024 season when the team won just three games, FCA was a dominant offensive force.
In 2022 and 2023 combined the Knights won 17 games, a MSL Cardinal title and scored 33.9 points per game. Pardon-Dudash is now trying to implement a similar explosive offense that will help the Ceramics improve their scoring.
“We like to throw the football, we like to go fast, we like to run it downhill, but we’re simple,” he said.
Pardon-Dudash gets his players to buy into each other rather than the plays they are running. That allows for the coaching staff to be confident and take more risks.
“If it’s fourth down and you want to throw it, let’s throw it. I believe in you that we’ll get it done. If we don’t get it done, let’s play defense and go get it back.”
The new offense and culture will be on full display Aug. 22 when the Ceramics open their season at Newcomerstown.