Cincinnati City Council plans to recognize the regional champion Taft High School football team at 2 p.m. Thursday at Cincinnati City Hall."This is amazing to receive this recognition," Taft football coach Tyler Williams said. "We're really thankful to see all of our hard work being recognized and having the opportunity to represent our school, community and conference. We will remember all of the adversity we had to overcome and we still managed to come together week in and week out and that brought us closer together as a program which helped us accomplish winning a regional championship."Taft (12-3 record in 2024) was a Division IV state semifinalist this past season. Taft was the first Cincinnati Public Schools football team to win a regional championship since 1992.The team will be honored in the council chambers on the third floor Thursday afternoon. The event is open to the public.Its a humbling moment to be honored by City Hall; it is truly amazing, Taft athletic director Austin Gullett said. This recognition is well-deserved as this team has put in a tremendous amount of hard work efforts that many do not see behind closed doors. This team is truly special. They faced every challenge head on and represented Taft, Cincinnati Public Schools and our community with honor, pride, integrity and courage.Taft defeated Alter 26-12 Nov. 22 in Monroe to earn the regional championship for the first time in program history. Taft has earned two regional final appearances in the past four seasons with head coach Tyler Williams. He has 42 wins in his four seasons with the program."We are looking forward to future seasons of greatness under the exceptional leadership of Coach Tyler Williams," said Josh Hardin, Cincinnati Public Schools athletics manager. "This talented team of student-athletes continue to gain collegiate scholarship offers and we are extremely proud of them. The future is bright for this program."Gullett said this past season's Taft team created a legacy.I am incredibly proud of the team, the coaching staff, the administrators and of course our TA Community, Gullett said. We live by the motto, Earned, Never Given and that is precisely what happened this year. We earned this recognition. This past season will go down in the history books for Taft as it marks our first regional championship in program history but it certainly wont be our last.Cincinnati Academy of Physical Education (CAPE) was the most recent CPS football program to win a regional title prior to Taft. CAPE won the last of its three state championships in 1992 (Division IV). CAPE also won state titles in 1986 (Division III) and 1985 (Division IV).SIGN UP: Subscribe to our high school sports newsletter