Tressel visits Day Air Ballpark to promote fitness, talks Buckeyes ring of honor

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Jim Tressel’s busy week as Ohio’s lieutenant governor brought him to Day Air Ballpark on Tuesday, Sept. 1, to promote the Team Tressel Fitness Challenge. On Saturday, Sept. 5, former Buckeyes coach Tressel will be added to the Ohio Stadium Ring of Honor.

In between? No doubt Gov. Mike DeWine will keep Tressel busy.

One of Tressel’s former Ohio State players and Wayne High graduate, Donnie Evege, works for Team Tressel. He threw out a ceremonial first pitch. Then Tressel accompanied Dayton Dragons manager Julio Morillo to home plate for the lineup card exchange. A couple of O-H … I-Os rang out from the stands.

Tressel’s fitness challenge, in conjunction with the Ohio Department of Education, attracted 190,000 school children from third through eighth grades in the fall of 2025. This fall 650,000 are involved, which is almost 80% of children in those grades. Four hundred of them were at the game.

DeWine’s idea, Tressel said, stemmed from a desire for every Ohioan to have physical and mental health. So he asked Tressel to start the program focused on strength, flexibility, cardio, nutrition, sleep, quiet time and mental training.

“The governor wanted something everyone could do, whether you’re in a wheelchair, or whether you were a kid that played 12 sports, and it’s been so much fun to go into the schools,” Tressel said.

On Saturday, Tressel’s 10-year tenure, national championship and 9-1 record vs. Michigan will be honored at Ohio State’s season opener against Ball State.

“There’s going to be recognition up there, and it’s going to be recognizing 10 years, and that’s 10 years worth of players, coaches, fans, everyone that was involved,” Tressel said.

“Then you think about every time one of your players looks at that sign, they’re going to feel a piece of them up there. And so it’s going to be pretty neat celebrating that with everyone. We’re just representing a bunch of guys that did some pretty good things.”

Evege played cornerback for Tressel beginning in 2007. Since graduating he has been a motivational speaker, CEO since 2013 of OH20 (an alkaline water company), and since July the director of athlete engagement and partnerships for Team Tressel.

“What he’s doing to make an impact in the whole entire state of Ohio is remarkable,” Evege said. “I don’t know if anything like this has ever been done to this degree.”

Evege will be in Ohio Stadium on Saturday with many former teammates and others who played for Tressel.

“We’re going to be getting together before the game and doing some pretty special things together as a team,” Evege said. “And we just we can’t wait to celebrate Coach Jim Tressel.”

Before the game Tressel and Morillo met by the dugout. Morillo asked him what advice he would give a young coach.

“He doesn’t know me from apple butter,” Tressel said. “I was just impressed that he asked. Some people ask you a question because they think they’re supposed to. But he was glued in. I said be a great listener because it’s easy as a coach to want to pontificate and tell everyone everything that you know. But what’s really important is find out what your players are thinking.”

Morillo was grateful for the advice.

“He was an elite coach, and even though it was a different sport, coaching is coaching,” he said. “The game you know and all the things that you need to do, but it’s what happens inside in the clubhouse. I just wanted to get his thoughts. I took a note of it, and I put it in my book.”

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