Mike Mauk has coached the top three passers in high school football history

Video: Alex Huston throws 9 TDs twice

In a landscape long defined by legendary Ohio State football coach Woody Hayes and his "three yards and a cloud of dust" mentality, futility led to an aerial onslaught.

"If you look at the Kenton program when we came here back in 1983, we had to find a way to be competitive in our league and we had not had great success in past years," Mike Mauk said. "We had nine winning seasons in the history of the school in the Western Buckeye League. We sure couldn't line up and run the Wing-T or the conventional offenses a lot of teams were running. We tried for three-four years and weren't successful. Finally, we had to turn things around and we began to throw the football."

Mauk, now the head football coach at Glendale (Springfield, Mo.), gave me that quote 18 years ago during an interview about his then-senior-to-be son — Ben Mauk.

This week, when I read Kevin Askeland's article about the nation's Top 100 single-season high school passing totals, I was reminded what an incredible run Mike Mauk has fashioned. Five months after my interview with the family, Ben would set the state and national record for single-season passing yardage with 6,560 yards. The mark still stands.

The record is one of many that Mike Mauk's famously unique offensive philosophy — five receivers, empty backfield, shotgun, go for 2, don't punt, no field goals — has generated.

Maty Mauk, Mike's youngest son, is the nation's all-time leader in passing yards (18,932), passing touchdowns (219), attempts (2,110) and completions (1,353). Ben ranks second or third in all.

Astoundingly, as Askeland pointed out, the top three passers in high school football history – Maty, Ben and Glendale's Alex Huston – were groomed by Mike Mauk. His quarterbacks own six of the top 13 single-season marks nationally and the first five in Ohio. Huston, who followed Mike Mauk to Missouri after his freshman season at Kenton (Ohio), owns the national record for yards in a game (822 in 2017).

Three Kenton receivers appear in the top nine nationally for career receptions, led by 2013 grad Justin Sawmiller and his record 445 catches. Sawmiller is second nationally in career receiving yards. Tommy Pettit, a 2004 grad, is fifth.

"The bottom line for us is we want to win football games and we've got to put our kids in the position to do that," Mike Mauk said. "We could throw all those records and yards out the window if we weren't successful, but when you win 15 games throwing the football and utilizing the skills of your athletes, you know you're doing something right."

Mauk's teams seldom get it wrong.

Taking over as a 25 year-old first-time head coach, Mauk won three WBL games his first three years at Kenton. When he retired from the Hardin County school in 2014, he had 221 wins, two state titles, four state finals and nine WBL championships. His last losing season at Kenton was 1992.

In his third season at Glendale, Mauk led the Falcons to the program's first 11-win season and Ozark Conference and Class 5 District 4 championships (2016).

I'm well versed in Mike Mauk's impact on football and young men.

After setting the then-Ohio High School Athletic Association career passing yardage record (7,170) and a one-year stint at Michigan State, Britton Crates — Kenton's first record-setting quarterback and a 1990 graduate — migrated to the University of Dayton where he competed with my brother-in-law Tony Ernst for the starting job in 1994.

At Mike Mauk's alma mater — Ashland University — I shared a locker room for five years with multiple Kenton grads. Quarterback Mark Molk transferred in from Bowling Green prior to the 1997 season and helped our team win the Midwestern Intercollegiate Football Conference and reach the NCAA Division II playoffs. Matt Clum is one of my favorite people — ever. Brian Woll remains one of my closest friends.

Professionally, I was lucky enough to cover Ben and Maty Mauk.

I drove to Kenton for preseason photo shoots with both players prior to their senior seasons. 

I watched Ben account for seven touchdowns in the 2002 D-IV state final as Kenton won back-to-back championships with a 45-13 victory over Portsmouth West.

One of the greatest individual performances I have ever witnessed was turned in by Maty Mauk in his last game at Kenton's Robinson Field — a 74-22 win over Wellington in the first round of the 2011 D-IV Ohio playoffs. Completing 27-of-29 passes, including his first 19 (state record) for 505 yards and nine touchdowns (state record), Maty became the nation's all-time leading passer that night surpassing Ben's mark of 17,364 yards on his third completion of the game — a 52-yard touchdown pass to Zach Wolowicz at the 9:26 mark of the first quarter. It was his second TD pass of the game.

Four weeks later in the state championship, Kenton fell 48-42 to Norwayne in a game that featured 40 fourth-quarter points and three touchdowns from Mauk (two passing, one running) in the final six minutes. Maty finished that season with 7,181 total yards and 92 touchdowns (5,413 yards passing and 68 touchdowns and 1,768 yards rushing and 24 touchdowns).

Ben (in 2002) and Maty (2011) are the only brothers in Ohio history to win the state's Mr. Football Award.

Mike has beaten colorectal cancer.

They are Ohio's version of the Mannings, McCowns and Carrs.

They are all on the Glendale coaching staff.

"Three things can happen when you pass the ball," Hayes, the Buckeyes bruising old-school coach, is credited with saying, "…and two of them are bad."

The Mauks have proven it's worth the risk.

"We're not as concerned as much with how many yards we have, we're concerned about winning football games," Mike Mauk said. "…and (our passing game) has been the vehicle that allows us to do that."