With five Northeast Ohio teams playing for state titles this weekend, maybe it’s easy for people to forget about a school like Norwalk St. Paul.

The school sits in a town that has no major highways run through it. A town best known to some for its race track.

It’s at least an hour from Cleveland. You won’t hear much about the Flyers on a newscast on Friday night during the season.

But coach John Livengood has been building up to Saturday’s state championship for a long time.

And it’s a wonder that more people don’t know about St. Paul.

This year’s senior class is the third in a row to have played 13 or more games in every season of their careers.

The Flyers appeared in their sixth straight regional final this season. And that kind of experience is invaluable to high school football players.

It’s not uncommon for teams to steam roll their way to the playoffs, only to have a letdown in the first few weeks of the postseason. That doesn’t happen to the Flyers because they have the pedigree.

Which is impressive, considering that St. Paul is in Division VI. Meaning that it has fewer than 124 boys enrolled in the school. Finding 22 championship caliber football players in that student population isn’t easy.

“It’s tough when you’re a small school to be good like that year in and year out,” Monroeville coach Steve Ringholz said

Livengood has made it work, though. Even through depth issues. When his starting quarterback Eric Schwieterman started the year with his arm in a sling, his top receiver Dan Tracht stepped into the role.

When Schwieterman returned to the field, the offense didn’t miss a beat. The Flyers’ top running back, Brian Griffin, also suffered an injury, but St. Paul had other players step up.

And next year, the players that filled in for their injured teammates will have had valuable playing time.

The Flyers have helped Livengood lay the foundation of a team that’s always there in the end. And the only thing missing is a state championship trophy.

To some of Livengood’s peers, this team could be the one.

“This may be the best job that coach Livengood has done as coach of that team,” Ringholz said. “They’ve got a lot of speed and a lot of quickness and their kids do a good job of executing — which is a good sign that they’ve been coached very well and they’ve responded to it pretty well.”

Part of what makes St. Paul so dangerous is their offensive variety. Between Schwieterman and Griffin, the rushing attack is potent. But Schweiterman has plenty of weapons in Dan Tracht, Jared Fries and Justin Wilde.

“I think it’s interesting to see them this year because I see so much balance,” said former New London coach Brent Besancon. “They’re able to run, they’re able to pass. It just sticks out more than anything. They have some special players. It just seems like a total team effort.”

One of the things that’s helped St. Paul a lot this season has been their competitive conference. Despite their domination, the Firelands Conference was deep with good teams in 2009. Crestview, Western Reserve and Monroeville all experienced degrees of success this season.

“The top four teams in our league were good football teams, and that helped a lot,” Ringholz said. “I think from what I’ve heard, (Monroeville), Western (Reserve) and Crestview were maybe as good or better than some of the teams they’ve seen in the playoffs.”

The Flyers are facing the defending state champions Saturday, and not many folks outside of Huron County are picking them to win.

But they’ve got nothing to lose this week.

They just went through their fifteenth week of practice. Most teams only get 10.

They just got four weeks of playoff experience for their underclassmen.

If they lose, it’s to a state power that was expected to win.

If they win, they’ve taken the final step to being considered a state power.