43
Valley basketball season draws to a close
High school gymnasiums across the Valley are once again quiet.
The familiar sounds of whistles blowing, sneakers squeaking and basketballs pounding into the hardwood floors will have to wait until next season, because the high school hoops season is officially over.
The last area team alive, the Ursuline boys, were eliminated emphatically Saturday night in a Division III regional final by a bigger, strong, more athletic Cleveland Villa Angela-St. Joseph squad — a recurring theme throughout March.
The same could be said for the Poland boys against Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary in a Division II regional semifinal on Thursday and the West Branch girls against Toledo Rogers in a state semifinal Friday in Columbus. And while spring, and warmer weather, is right around the corner, the reality of the end can be difficult for some.
“One of the hardest things for kids to deal with is that last basketball game,” Ursuline boys coach Keith Gunther said following his team’s loss at the Canton Fieldhouse.
“You gotta turn your jersey in, there’s no more practice. As much as kids say they hate practice and they don’t wanna go all the time, when you know you don’t have anymore left, that’s a tough pill to swallow.”
Those fortunate enough will move on to play basketball at the next level after they graduate high school. Some are still underclassman and have more time left to achieve the ultimate goal of lifting a state championship trophy. But for almost everyone else, it’s the end of their competitive basketball career.
“They’re closing a chapter in their life right now and that’s never easy,” West Branch girls coach Walt DeShields said Saturday in Columbus. “Us, as adults, understand that a little bit.
“They’re all going to be successful people because of how hard they’ve worked here. If they do that in life, they’re going to be highly successful people and that’s the teachable moment that we have here.”
It’s been 21 years since a Valley boys team has cut down the nets in Columbus (Ursuline, 1994). It’s been 11 years since a girls team did it (Ursuline and West Branch, 2004). There have been close calls, but talent often prevails later in the season.
West Branch faced a team in Rogers that has five girls committed to NCAA Division I schools for basketball. Ursuline went up against a team in VA-SJ with more size than some colleges have. That’s tough to match up against.
“If [Carlton Bragg] plays at Kansas, he’s gonna probably play in the league,” Gunther said of VA-SJ’s 6-foot-10 forward. “If [Derek Pardon] continues to progress like he has the last two years, he’s gonna make money playing basketball. I don’t know if it’ll be in the NBA, but both of those guys are gonna make money playing basketball somehow, someway.
“Realistically, do we have anybody of that caliber? No.”
So is it back to the drawing board for coaches? Sort of. Without the luxury of adding a few pieces to their roster, most coaches know what they have coming back. The challenge will still be getting past the likes of SV-SM and VA-SJ, who just seem to reload — not rebuild.
“Cupboard’s never empty as long as there’s kids that wanna play,” said Poland boys coach Ken Grisdale.
While there’s no obvious favorite to end the Valley’s title drought in the near future, high school sports can sometimes be difficult to predict. That’s why they play the games in March.