A reporter's journey through the 2001-02 basketball season

Let me admit something -- I'm a lousy fan.
When I'm a fan, I root for my team to blow out the other team. I don't enjoy good, clean games. I don't handle losses well. (I actually have a scar on one of my knuckles from punching vinyl siding after Game 7 of the 1997 World Series.)
But when I'm covering a game as a reporter, I'm surprisingly sane. As a reporter, I root for close games. I root for stories. I root for leads.
On March 1, I didn't have any of those. At least I thought I didn't.
Rewind: Niles was playing Liberty in a Division II sectional final boys basketball game at Boardman High School. I thought Niles would win by about 15 points and, in the first half, Liberty was doing its best to prove me right.
Midway through the second quarter I turned to a reporter sitting next to me and said, "This game stinks."
(It's always dangerous for me to say something like that because, frankly, I can be pretty stupid at times.)
Liberty chipped away at its deficit in the third quarter, and when Niles senior David Soda sat the whole fourth quarter after picking up a technical, Liberty sophomore Bradley Fletcher decided to take over the game, scoring the Leopards' final 17 points in regulation to force overtime. Niles eventually won 70-67, but it took two overtimes.
I covered 56 basketball games this year and that was the best game I saw. I ate some bad pepperoni rolls, listened to some bad quotes and wrote some bad stories, but there was far more good than bad.
Standing out: Here are some of the highlights:
UBoys basketball players who were fun to watch: Warren Harding junior Danny Stella, Boardman guard Mike Finamore, Niles senior Tyler Spencer, Springfield senior Pat Birch and Lisbon sophomore Lucian Smith.
UGirls basketball players who were fun to watch: Western Reserve junior Anna Marie Ricciardi, Canfield junior Kelly Williams, Newton Falls junior Desiree Sterling, Howland junior Darcy Quinlan and Fitch senior Kim Buhro.
UNumber of basketball players I saw carried out by paramedics: Two. (Struthers junior Jim Franceschelli and Western Reserve junior Jen Hallos.)
UNumber of football players I saw carried out by paramedics last fall: Zero.
UNumber of times I was asked if I was in high school: Far too many.
UBest example of what it's like to sit next to an assistant coach: Field was playing Chaney in the opening game of the Division II girls sectional tournament at Fitch. The Falcons were down by 15 points with 30 seconds left in the game when one of the Field assistants started screaming at one of the referees for not calling a three-second violation on one of the Chaney players.
Are you kidding me?
UFavorite quote by a player: Poland junior Neil Harris: "If our seniors told us to sleep in tents, we'd sleep in tents."
UAll freshman team: West Branch's Tori Arndt, Rayen's Taneisha Holland, Poland's Chad Fender, Lowellville's Amanda Nero, Salem's Sarah Hamilton.
UBest student section: It took a hundred togas, beach wear, an inflatable alligator, verbal harassment, quite a few tournament games and just about everybody in the school for Poland to pass Springfield, but the Bulldogs finally did it. The Tigers took second -- sporting a tumbler, camouflage, Afro wigs and males who wear cheerleading outfits. (Although the last one makes me want to put Sebring ahead of them.)
UBest cheerleaders (the female variety): Rayen.
UBest pepperoni rolls: Ursuline. I won't tell you who has the worst.
UStrangest mascot: Cleveland East Tech "Scarabs." As far as I can tell, a Scarab is a dung beetle considered sacred by the ancient Egyptians.
Why they chose this as a nickname is beyond me.
UAll-name team: Poland sophomore Steffi Graf, Maplewood senior Bruce Wayne, Boardman sophomore Keenan Ready, Canfield senior Chase Booms, Lowellville senior Autumn Axel.
UBest coach's quote I didn't use: Warren Harding junior varsity coach Dan Bubon during the fourth quarter of a road win over Ursuline: "Does anyone have a watch? This is the longest JV game in history."
New York newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin once said, "If people talked the way they do on television interviews or in newspapers, the world would drop dead of boredom."
I think he was talking about basketball coaches.
To offset that, here are the five second half coaches quotes I loved the most:
UEast Palestine girls basketball coach Dan McKinstry revealed his secret strategy after the Bulldogs beat Leetonia 44-39: "My defense is usually predictable, but I have been up since 3:30 a.m. watching tape and I tried to change as much as I could."
UAfter a 51-46 win over Pine-Richland, New Castle boys coach John Sarandrea said this about his team's streaky shooting. "That's a terrible quality. It's like playing Russian roulette."
U"I told our guys before the game that we're going to hold him to 20. I walked around the corner and told our assistants that we were dreaming," said George Jr. coach Bob McConnell, who held Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary standout -- and Sports Illustrated cover boy -- LeBron James to 20 points in a 58-57 loss to GJR.
U"He plays like his hair is on fire," Poland coach Ken Grisdale of junior Neil Harris. "He needs to have his hair on fire."
Since Harris sported a pretty shaggy haircut for much of the season, I wondered if Grisdale was speaking metaphorically.
UAfter a 66-51 loss to Ursuline, Rayen girls coach Holly Seimetz was asked if she was happy about winning the Youngstown City Series. She wasn't. "The City is not our first goal," she said. "The City is weak."
XJoe Scalzo covers high school sports for The Vindicator. Write him at scalzo@vindy.com.