Hall of Famer Joe Thomas one of the guys at Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards
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Hall of Famer Joe Thomas one of the guys at Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards
Former Cleveland Browns player Joe Thomas spoke at the 2024-25 Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards show. Local athletes view Thomas as a role model and inspiration. “It’s special to have someone famous like that just meet people from a little town in Ohio,” Manchester soccer player Olivia Pfahler said. Thomas: “I think it shows the kids that high school football and youth sports are important,’ Thomas said at the awards show in Akron, Ohio, on Tuesday, June 17, 2014. The event was hosted by the Greater Akron and Canton High School Athletic Association. The awards show was held at the University of Akron’s Convoy of Strength, on the campus of Ohio State University, in downtown Akron. For more information on the event, go to www.greaterakronandcanton.org/sport-awards-show and follow them on Twitter at @bbournett and @CNNSportAthletics. For the full interview with Joe Thomas, click here.
Attendees were impressed by Thomas’ humility and genuine interactions.
Local athletes view Thomas as a role model and inspiration.
Joe Thomas has never been ordinary, but on Tuesday, June 17, the former Cleveland Browns great took time to be average.
It delighted the 750 in attendance at the 2024-25 Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards to no end.
Here was the third pick in the 2007 NFL Draft and a first ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer taking time out of his day to speak at the banquet and meet each individual winner after their names were announced.
“It shows no matter how famous you are, people care deep down,” Manchester soccer player Olivia Pfahler said. “…It’s special to have someone famous like that just meet people from a little town in Ohio.”
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If anyone can be labeled a hero, it’s Pfahler, who was born with a femoral deficiency that left her left side from the pelvic bone down underdeveloped. Pfahler also doesn’t have all the bones in her left foot and ankle.
None of that prevented her from becoming Manchester’s soccer captain and team MVP.
So here Pfahler was talking about how incredible it was to meet Thomas and listen to him speak after she won the 2025 Courage Award.
Joe Thomas’ humble attitude has been noticed for a long time
“I remember when he got drafted, he wasn’t at the draft because he was fishing with his dad,” said Louisville basketball coach Tom Siegfried, who won the boys coach of the year award. “I think from that point on I said, ‘This is a genuine guy.’ This is a guy that could live next door to you and is just somebody you can really look up to in doing the right thing. Maybe in a world that’s self-accolades, he’s a guy that I really think did it for the team and really did it for the all the right reasons.”
Thomas said as much to a crowd that hung on his every word when he lauded the three-sport athlete and told the 250 student-athletes in attendance that putting the team before yourself is the key to success.
“I think it shows the kids that high school football and youth sports are important,” Thomas said. “It’s worth sacrificing and dedicating yourself to. It’s the ultimate thing right now in our country that brings community together.”
Joe Thomas has always been one of the guys in Ohio
Walsh Jesuit’s Keller Moten, who was named the offensive player of the year in football, knows how extraordinary Thomas is.
The future John Carroll quarterback was given a Joe Thomas jersey when he was 2 years old and used to swing it around at games as a season ticket holder.
Several years later, on a trip home from Puerto Vallarta, the Motens boarded a connector plane in Dallas that Thomas was on. The Browns great snapped a picture with a 9-year old Moten.
“It’s just a testament to him and his character,” Moten said. “We’ve known this for a while about Joe Thomas. He’s a great guy. He is on a plane. He’s coming home, probably after a long trip, and he still took the time to meet me and sign everything. It just shows what kind of guy he is that he goes out of his way for the fans and understands it.”
Joe Thomas’ character impresses Greater Akron-Canton high school stars
Character was what everyone that met him talked about. If you took the stage as a winner, Thomas was waiting backstage to take a picture with you and his smile never faded.
Lake’s Daniela Scheffler was named the cross country, track and field, and overall female athlete of the year. That sent her backstage three times and each time she talked to Thomas the two conversed like they knew each other forever.
“I feel like I’ve met some really cool people like that and realizing that they’re just another person kind of gives you the confidence,” she said. “They’re just another person and I’m just another person, so anything that I put my mind to, I can accomplish. I think it’s important to have those role models in your life.”
Contact Brad Bournival at bbournival@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter at @bbournival