{"id":198466,"date":"2025-10-17T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=198466"},"modified":"2025-10-17T22:10:59","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T03:10:59","slug":"2000-cougar-football-team-to-be-honored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/10\/17\/2000-cougar-football-team-to-be-honored\/","title":{"rendered":"2000 Cougar football team to be honored"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Van Wert High School will honor the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Cougar Football Division III OHSAA state runner-up team&nbsp;during the regular season finale at home vs. Kenton next Friday, October 24.&nbsp; The celebration will recognize the outstanding accomplishments of the players, coaches and support staff who made that historic season possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former players, cheerleaders, trainers, managers, and coaches&nbsp;from the 2000 team are invited to join the festivities. Following the game against the Wildcats, a social gathering will be held at the Moose Lodge&nbsp;to reconnect and celebrate the team\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"364\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2000-Cougar-football-I.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-198468\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">The 2000 Van Wert football team and those associated with the team will be honored next Friday, October 24. <em>Photos submitted<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>During that special season, Van Wert went 6-4 during the regular season, grabbed the eighth and final playoff spot in Division III Region 10, and defeated Big Walnut, Bellevue, Columbus Bishop Watterson and Portsmouth to earn a place in the title game. In the championship game, the Cougars fell to Canton Central Catholic in two overtimes, 27-26, but nonetheless completed a season to be remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those who were part of the 2000 season are asked to complete a short online form to help organizers plan for the event. The form is available <a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.proofpoint.com\/v2\/url?u=https-3A__docs.google.com_forms_d_e_1FAIpQLSdm-2DQUNDPyHZIG-5FpHu6n6dQJVcXcyss4HYUJ6SCeaLsssAiFQ_viewform&amp;d=DwIFaQ&amp;c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&amp;r=FC13PzDbVZ8qhVsUeHYgLJLYUVcrkfTA5q3JvQduqoI&amp;m=pCmixtk9VoWTYndPyBwBDGqoQMl7TviLsNj0VgR4UWdNoaa7I2fjMhN62pQkwlZA&amp;s=2-PA51_Rvxk79-anw9aBDe2zPkMcHAila0mWVzfeonM&amp;e=\">here<\/a>. Community members are encouraged to share this information to help reach as many former team members as possible. For questions or additional information, contact Coach Jeff Hood at <a href=\"mailto:jeff.hood033@gmail.com\">jeff.hood033@gmail.com<\/a>\u00a0or call 419.605.2801.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The community is encouraged to come together to honor one of the most memorable seasons in Cougar football history.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"550\" height=\"368\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2000-Cougar-football-II.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-198469\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff\/submitted information Van Wert High School will honor the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Cougar Football Division III OHSAA state runner-up team&nbsp;during the regular season finale at home vs. Kenton next Friday, October 24.&nbsp; The celebration will recognize the outstanding accomplishments of the players, coaches and support staff who made that historic season [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-198466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 06:34:39","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198466"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198481,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198466\/revisions\/198481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}