Columbus Bishop Watterson High School completed a remarkable run of athletic achievement by defeating Toledo Central Catholic 30-0 on Friday, Dec. 5 to win the Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) Division III football championship at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton.
It was the third state title in five weeks for teams representing the school. The Eagles won the OHSAA Division II girls cross country championship on Nov. 1 and the boys Division II soccer crown eight days later.
The football victory was the second in a row for Watterson over Central Catholic in a state title game and allowed the Eagles to finish 14-0 for the season and to extend their two-year winning streak to 30 games. The state championship was the fourth for Watterson, its others coming in 2002, 2010 and last year. Watterson and Central Catholic also met for the 2023 state crown with the Irish winning that game.
“I felt pretty good going into tonight because we had a great week of practice,” Watterson coach Brian Kennedy said on the field immediately after the game. “They were prepared and worked very hard and it was great to see it come together.
“We try to put our kids in position to succeed. They don’t play crazy or very fast, but they play fast and that’s what they did tonight.”
Watterson dominated as it did for most of the season. It was the Eagles’ 12th straight game played with a continuously running clock for at least part of the second half once the margin reached 30 points.
Watterson opened with a 1-yard touchdown run by Jack McCoy and a scoring pass of 5 yards from Drew Bellisari to Joe Hayes in the first quarter. Eli Eagan added a 28-yard field goal in the second quarter, McCoy scored his second touchdown in the third quarter with a 13-yard run and Carter Bellisari, Drew’s cousin, ran back an interception 35 yards in the fourth quarter.
Drew Bellisari had an off night, throwing four interceptions, but a strong defense led by linebacker Michael Boyle, selected the game’s most valuable player, kept the Irish (11-5) out of the end zone, holding Central Catholic to 24 rushing yards and 179 yards overall. Bellisari completed 13 of 22 passes for 250 yards.
Watterson began the year by coming back from a 15-0 deficit to defeat Sunbury Big Walnut, which reached the Division II semifinals, 37-15, then played its only close game of the regular season, edging Middletown, Delaware, 14-13 as part of a three-game invitational program at Ironton featuring teams from Ohio, Illinois, Delaware and Virginia.
“Middletown was a big, physical team similar to Toledo Central, with a bunch of Division I commits. That was a good game for us and it was good to see that type of team because beating them showed we could play well the rest of the way,” Kennedy said.
No one got within 30 points of the Eagles after that until the state championship game. Watterson finished with a 9-0 regular season, defeating Westerville North 38-0, Tiffin Columbian 81-7, Columbus Harvest Prep 36-6, Columbus St. Francis DeSales 42-7, Columbus Bishop Hartley 57-7, Canal Fulton Northwest 49-12 and Columbus St. Charles 65-7.
The Eagles had a first-round postseason bye, then posted playoff victories of 56-0 over Granville, 48-6 over Dresden Tri-Valley, 43-0 over Steubenville and 41-9 over Tipp City Tippecanoe on their way to Canton.
Kennedy said the success of the previous two seasons bred a feeling going into this year of “not arrogance, but confidence. We’re at the point where the program is now that we can talk about having goals of first, winning the Central Catholic League championship, then attempting a deep run in the postseason.
“Going for a third state championship game was a realistic goal because we had a lot of guys coming back, including two first-team all-state players in Bellisari at quarterback and Pete Eglitis on the offensive line, plus six sophomore starters returning on defense.
“The loss of 22 seniors left some leadership voids, but we had plenty of kids ready to step up and fill those spots. I’ve always believed in our kids and I wasn’t worried about them feeling pressure to come back and not have a bad season,” he said. “I just wanted to make sure we were ready for the season with guys who believed 100 percent in our goals, and the rest would take care of itself.”
Bellisari, who will being going to Oxford, Ohio next fall to play for Miami University, has been the starting quarterback since the first game of his junior season and finished with a 30-0 record in that position. He was the Central District’s offensive player of the year for 2025 and was considered a strong possibility for first-team All-Ohio honors again. This year’s all-state team had not been announced when this issue of The Catholic Times went to press.
“Everything started with Drew,” Kennedy said. “He’s a tremendous leader on and off the field, Everybody recognized he was ‘the man’ and gave him the respect you get when you keep showing leadership. He had full control of the team in the huddle and it showed in the way they played together.”
Bellisari comes from a family with a strong football heritage. His father, Greg Bellisari, is a former Ohio State linebacker and now an assistant coach at Watterson. His uncle, Steve Bellisari, played quarterback for the Buckeyes from 1998 to 2001.
Drew Bellisari, Eglitis and McCoy were the Eagles’ tri-captains for 2025. Eglitis, who committed to Iowa State as a junior, and Bellisari are the Eagles’ only seniors planning to play Division I football in college. Junior free safety Nate Henderson is an Ohio State commitment in baseball as a left-handed pitcher. “He chose baseball but could make a lot of Division I football teams,” the coach said.
“Eglitis is a three-year starter and his talent was so obvious that it was no surprise when he got recruited by Power Four schools as a junior,” Kennedy said. “His leadership developed steadily over the course of three years. McCoy played running back and is a great comeback story. He tore up his knee badly as a sophomore and wasn’t 100 percent last year. Now as a senior he was our leading rusher and showed a great example of persistence.
“Our defensive front seven was led by Ben Uhlenhake, a junior who has started in three state championship games in three years – at running back as a freshman and at middle linebacker the last two years, where he has been our leading tackler. He’s another once with great football sense that probably comes from his family background.” His father, Jeff, is a Watterson assistant, played center at Ohio State and had a nine-year NFL career with Miami, New Orleans and Washington.
“Boyle is a two-time state wrestling champion who was this year’s district defensive player of the year. He has a focus and an attitude you don’t often see in kids that age. I’d also describe him as the team’s spiritual leader. He prays the rosary before every game and his prayerful example is something many other kids have modeled.
“Faith is one of the things that binds this team,” Kennedy said. “We talk about faith, family and community as being the three pillars of the team and of the school. The players know that in any tough situation, God is with them to support them. He has their backs.
“On Fridays before games, we always have a communion service as a team in the school chapel. It’s important because the players go in with the excitement of having another game in a few hours, but the prayers and service calm them down and focus their minds on what’s really important. Prayer right before and right after games is a must.”
Toledo Central Catholic was in its fourth consecutive championship game and eighth overall under Greg Dempsey, who has been head coach of the Irish for 26 years and led the team to championships in 2005, 2012, 2014, 2022 and 2023.
“You can’t help but respect a program like that. It’s been a great privilege to have them as an opponent for the last three years,” Kennedy said. “Every year, they’re one of the top teams in the state. They bring in a lot of talent, but some coaches don’t do a great job with that kind of talent. Greg does. His program and ours are very much the same in that winning seems to breed winning for both teams. It’s a lot easier for kids to buy in to what you ask when they see it produces results.”
This was Kennedy’s ninth season at Watterson, where he is 80-30 overall. He’s a 1992 graduate of the school, played defensive tackle at SMU, worked and coached in Dallas for a few years, then came back to his hometown, where he works at the Defense Supply Center Columbus. He joined the Watterson coaching staff as a volunteer assistant in 2004, rose in the coaching ranks and became head coach in 2017.
“I always had a desire for coaching, which I started to fulfill in Texas,” he said. “But I’m not a teacher and had a hard time finding other work there, so I moved back home, found a wife, got a job and have been here ever since.
“Being successful is good, but the best thing about coaching is seeing guys mature from sort of goofy kids to intelligent and respectful young men. As with this year’s team, for most of them, this is as far as they will go playing football, so my real job besides helping them grow as a team is helping with the life skills they need outside of sports.
“It’s great to see my old players come back for games and tell me what they’ve accomplished and how football helped them. It’s something coaches say all the time, but it’s true that the satisfaction in coaching comes from making a difference in kids’ lives.”
Kennedy’s 2026 team will have seven returning starters on offense and 10 on defense, and he anticipates entering the season with the same quiet confidence as this year’s Eagles. “Our goal is to be back in Canton next year. With what we have coming back, it’s not an unreasonable one,” he said.
