All Hudson High School football coach Ron Wright needs to make it to his team's really big game at Mentor on Friday night is the cooperation of the weather, local authorities and the Federal Aviation Administration.
That's all normal, right?
A little luck wouldn't hurt as Wright tries to make it from Stow, a little north of Akron, to Mentor, about 25 miles east of Cleveland -- and get there before halftime of his team's game at Mentor, which advanced to Ohio's big-school Final Four a year ago. Hudson is 8-0, sits atop the computer standings in Div. I, Region 1 and is playing for a league title, but Wright won't be there until he attends the senior night ceremonies for his son, Kyle, who kicks, punts and plays cornerback for Stow.
It's been a great fall in the Wright household; Stow is 7-1, and its only loss is to Hudson, its neighborhood rival. Ron Wright promised Kyle last summer that he wouldn't miss the ceremony before Kyle's final home game.
That promise is being kept with help by a Hudson resident who doesn't want to be named but has offered use of his airplane. A flight plan is in place for Ron Wright to be transported Friday evening -- 47 miles by air -- from Kent State Airport to Lost Nation Airport in Willoughby, which is about four miles from Mentor's Osborne Stadium.
Mother Nature's cooperation would help. It snowed this week in Northeast Ohio -- enough to knock out power in some areas of Cleveland -- and Mentor is in the Snow Belt. Friday's early forecast is good, but history says it's not to be trusted.
"If the weather is OK, I will fly," Ron Wright said. "If there's ice or another issue, I'll drive myself. That will be OK, too. I just appreciate everyone's help trying to make this happen."
An article about Wright's potential journey appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer earlier this week, and when Stow athletic director Cyle Feldman saw it, he called Pam Wright, Ron's wife and Kyle's mom, asking what he could do to help. That discussion started a few different phones buzzing; the goal for all involved was to make Ron Wright's trip as smooth as possible.
Both football games kickoff at 7 p.m. Feldman bumped up Stow's senior night ceremony 10 minutes, from 6:30 to 6:20, not just for the Wright family but to make sure there's time to honor 20 football players and 60 band members. The football players in the ceremony will be honored numerically, not alphabetically, meaning No. 3 Kyle Wright will go first.
A police car will be waiting close to the vehicle driven by Ron Wright, who might become the first coach in football history to have a reserved parking spot at his rival's stadium. Kent State Airport is actually in Stow, and Feldman said the trip by vehicle to the airport will take "seven minutes maximum...maybe five."
Ron Wright has a backup plan, and that's driving his Dodge caravan the 50 or so minutes it would take to get to Mentor. But he's flown on the kind of small plane the itinerary calls for him to ride on Friday night, and he hopes to be buckled in and airborne by 6:50 or so Friday evening.
"I hope (the plane) is a good one," Wright joked.
If all goes well with traffic and the flight, Wright could arrive at Hudson's game at Mentor by the end of the first quarter.
Stow is trying to make the state playoffs for the first time since 1995. There, a Hudson-Stow rematch could await.
Presumably, no flights would be necessary. And like will happen at least for a while on Friday night, all the Wrights will be in one place.
