Elyria Pioneer Football

Congratulations to our football Seniors Jayden Jackson and Joe Mlinko on receiving their Scholastic E’s tonight for maintaining a 3.75GPA or higher for all 4 years of high school earning the Magna Cum Laude recognition for commencement next month!! Congratulations boys and best wishes!

High school football: Elyria Catholic drops Elyria from next season's schedule ELYRIA — The Battle of Elyria has been put on hold.

Congrats to Darrius Atley on being named Chronicle Telegram Wrestler of the Week.

Good luck to BJ and the rest of the Pioneers basketball team at tonight’s sectional tournament game against Wooster!! Game time is 7PM at EHS for anyone interested!!

Congrats to Darrius and Kemarion! They will be wrestling again at this weekends sectionals!

A little history lesson for Black History Month as it pertains to 2 of our seniors from this past season:

As football season approached this past fall Elyria’s head coach Devlin Culliver called the combination of Seniors Isaiah Johnson and Lance Glover a strong duo stating that each in their own positions would be a force to be reckoned with. And while they were both seniors on the football team they are also very good friends and what some might not know is that they are related as well. As part of Black History Month a group called the Elyria Black Legacy Connection has been doing research and writing features on Elyria’s black community members. The Johnson lineage was featured last fall. Although Isaiah’s dad Isaac said he’s always been aware there’s a relation between the Johnson’s and Madison’s no one in his immediate family was certain of where the relation was. Isaac said when Lance first started playing on the peewee football team he coached he always made sure to tell the boys they were more than teammates and that they were related.

I’ve been researching it and traced it back to Isaiah and Lance’s 3rd great grandparents being the connecting piece- Sandy and Ollie Johnson from Saluda, SC in the late 1800’s. From them came brothers Alvin and Henry. Alvin made the journey to Elyria with his family. Henry stayed in Saluda where he passed but his daughter made the journey to Elyria.

For Isaiah the lineage is: Alvin and Ida Rose to Albert and Etta Mae to Tim and Debra to Isaac and Jodie and lastly down to Isaiah

For Lance the lineage is: Henry and Beulah to Beulah (daughter of Henry and Beulah) and Joe to Gene and Marsha to Tyshekwa and Lance Sr. and lastly down to Lance Jr.

In this case it truly is deeper than football- it’s family! A strong lineage of lots of stand out athletes dating back for years in Elyria of both the Johnson and Madison lines. From the 1800’s in Saluda, SC to today in Elyria, OH we’ve connected the puzzle.