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Boardman prepares for wide open district tourney
Several area teams hold top seeds
By Steve Ruman
The high school basketball season began in early December with Boardman surprising area fans by logging a 52-51 win over Warren G. Harding.
Spartans coach Pat Birch wouldn’t mind another meeting with the Raiders in mid-March.
It’s not that Birch feels overconfident about a rematch. It’s just that another meeting would mean that the Spartans and Raiders would be playing in the Alliance Division I district final.
Harding and Boardmanare among the area schools that will begin their “second season” this week as the Ohio High School Athletic Association tournament gets underway with sectional play.
Harding (15-7) and Boardman (18-4) are joined by three other area schools — Youngstown East, Austintown Fitch and Howland — in the Alliance district. Boardman is a third seed, one spot above Harding.
Akron Ellet and Uniontown Lake are the top two seeds in the district.
“I look at our district as pretty wide open,” Birch said. “Ellet deservedly earned the top seed, but there are a number of dangerous teams entering the tournament.”
Despite his early-season win over Harding, Birch admitted he was “a bit surprised” his Spartans were seeded ahead of the Raiders.
“Once the seedings were in place, you saw some teams avoid having to play Harding early on, so that shows that there is still a ton of respect for the program and what they can accomplish in the tournament,” Birch said.
Birch is excited to see how his own team responds to a high seed following a successful regular season.
“We’ve been involved in a number of close games this year, and our kids have handled the pressure pretty well,” Birch said. “This is a veteran group that is anxious to see what they can do in March.”
The Division II Boardman district includes 11 area teams, with Poland leading the way. Ursuline, a two-seed, is the defending district title holder.
Struthes and Canfield round out the top four seeds.
“The entire bracket is very balanced, you have a number of teams who can legitimately win this district,” Poland coach Ken Grisdale said.
Poland (17-5) played seven teams from the Boardman district this season, and was 10-1 against the competition. It’s lone loss was to Struthers, a team it later defeated. Despite the success, Grisdale insists his team is by no means a clear-cut favorite.
“A lot of our wins, they were close games that could have gone either way,” Grisdale said. “We’re fully aware of how dangerous Struthers and Canfield can be. Ursuline, their schedule prepares them for March. We’ve seen that in the past.”
The top seed in the Division III Warren district is also the top-ranked DIII team in the state — LaBrae. The Vikings (21-0) open tournament play by hosting Burton Berkshire.
The bottom half of the Warren district bracket features a first-round game between All-American Conference Blue Tier foes Newton Falls and Champion, who split a pair of regular season games.
Second-seed Garrettsville Garfield hosted LaBrae in late December. The Vikings cruised to a 65-48 win.
“I think our bracket is pretty straightforward, no surprises,” LaBrae coach Chad Kiser said. “We feel good about our chances heading into the tournament as long as we stay focused and stay on course. We need to continue to improve, because things get more difficult with each win.”
LaBrae closed its season last Tuesday with a 55-50 home win over previously-unbeaten South Range (21-1). The Raiders are the top-seeded team in a D-III Salem District which also includes Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas, Springfield and Canton Central Catholic.
Kiser believes the season-finale between his Vikings and the Raiders will benefit both teams.
“We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect way to head into the tournament, and I’m pretty sure (South Range coach) John Cullen will say the same thing,” Kiser said. “The game had a district final feel to it. Sold out crowd, on live television. The game came down to the wire. The experience was invaluable to us, and it was the perfect way to head into the tournament.”
Kiser believes South Range is the favorite to win what he calls “a very competitive” Salem district.
“South Range will be a tough team to beat,” Kiser said. “They are so well-coached, and they are so fundamentally sound. A very talented team.”
“That being said, there are a lot of teams in that district that played a very strong regular season schedule. You have teams with a history of success, so whoever comes out of Salem will certainly have earned their title.”
The top four seeds in the Struthers Division IV district all hail from the Inter-Tri County League. Top-ranked McDonald (21-1) leads the list, followed by Western Reserve, Wellsville and Lisbon.
McDonald is also looking to defend the district title it won a year ago.
“We like our position, but at the same time we know we have to put out our best effort every night,” McDonald coach Jeff Rasile said. “We not only have some higher seeded teams who gave us some real battles in the regular season, but there are also some sleepers in this district who can cause some chaos.”
Rasile isn’t concerned about the possibility of facing several teams for a third time this year.
“In this day and age, any coach can pretty much see any opponent on the internet as much as they want,” Rasile said. “We’re going to know our opponents and they will know us. It’s just a matter of executing and playing to the best of your ability.”
Six other schools will be part of the Orwell Division IV district, including Bristol, Warren John F. Kennedy and Maplewood, who are seeded one, three and four, respectively.
“Our district is loaded,” Kennedy coach Mark Komlanc said. “For starters we have the defending state champion (second-seeded Cornerstone Christian), a state ranked team (Bristol) and a Richmond Heights team that is loaded with talent. I like that our schedule prepared us for this time of the year, but the same can be said for a lot of teams in our district.”
The tournament tips off Tuesday for Divisions II, III and IV. The Division I sectionals begin on Wednesday.