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Struthers will honor Beachy, Lancy
By Greg Gulas
STRUTHERS
The Struthers Wildcats girls and boys basketball teams have played “Foundation” games dating to 2009 with proceeds raised earmarked for the Doris Lancy Scholarship.
The scholarship was named in honor of the former teacher, coach and record keeper after her untimely death and is awarded to a female Struthers athlete who attends college upon graduation.
The Wildcats girls will host the Leetonia Bears on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Struthers Field House in this year’s game and upon completion of the contest, Struthers will honor Lancy and the late Bonnie Beachy, for whom a scholarship will also be dedicated.
The boys team will then take on Warren JFK in the doubleheader nightcap.
Lancy was known as a dedicated, caring role model for the girls program and her husband Ed and family established the scholarship to honor her memory. To date, eight scholarships have been awarded.
Beachy, who lost a long battle with cancer on Oct. 13, was the heartbeat of the girls basketball program as she led head coach Dick Prest’s squad to the 1978 Class AAA state championship..
An all-around athlete who also lettered in track, softball and for the boys tennis team — the school didn’t offer a girls team at that time — Beachy set the standard by which not just future Wildcats girls athletes would be judged, but athletes from the entire Mahoning Valley.
Beachy’s 1,448 career points remains the high water mark for the program. She averaged 24.0 points and 16.1 rebounds and earned 11 letters (including four each in basketball and track).
“We were a good team because Bonnie made everyone around her that much better,” Prest said. “She could have averaged 35 points a game if she wanted to, but we had such a great group of athletes that when we got the lead she made sure to include everyone and kept feeding her teammates. I looked up to her as she was just like family to me.”
Beachy was selected Most Valuable Player at the Class AAA state tournament that senior season, earning Player of the Year honors from both the Associated Press and United Press International wire services.
Former Struthers girls coach Anne Wilson graduated from Poland the year before Beachy and had to guard the sharpshooter when the Bulldogs and Wildcats squared off.
“I saw the old scorebook from the first time that I guarded her and it says that I held her to four points, but we lost by 10. The only explanation is that she must have been under the weather that game,” Wilson said. “The next time around she had a much better game. The thing that impressed me most about Bonnie was that she was always so very humble. She was never an in-your-face type player and to me, she was one of the very best, if not the very best female athlete ever to come out of our area.”
An honorable mention Parade All-American, Beachy was a first-team Steel Valley Conference pick three consecutive years, earned SVC first-team laurels in track was an all-Mahoning County selection in tennis.
John Hritz, who will coach Leetonia on Wednesday, coached the Wildcats from 1978-96 and was an assistant on Prest’s staff the year the team won the state title.
He called Beachy a coach on the floor.
“Bonnie set the standard for girls basketball in our area,” Hritz noted. “She was a born leader and an even greater person. A tremendous free throw shooter, she would just take over and did exactly that in the state championship game.”
Upon graduation, Beachy received a scholarship to Kent State University and picked up right where she left off in high school, earning four letters in basketball and another three in tennis for the Golden Flashes
Her 2,071 career points is still tops at KSU for either the men’s or women’s programs while her No. 13 was anything but unlucky as it is retired and hangs in the rafters of the KSU field house.
A Kodak All-Region honoree her final two seasons, she set 23 records during her Golden Flashes career and is enshrined in the school’s athletics hall of fame for both sports.
“Women like Bonnie Beachy and Doris Lancy typify the excellence of the Struthers basketball program,” said current Struthers girls basketball coach John Grandy. “It has made my job so much easier and I cannot tell you how honored I am to be a part of this year’s Foundation game.”
Prest, Hritz and Wilson will join Grandy in attendance Wednesday to help kick off Beachy’s memorial scholarship and also to celebrate Lancy’s contributions to the program.
A video of Beachy’s career can be viewed on Facebook and contributions to the Bonnie Beachy Legacy Scholarship fund can be made by contacting the Struthers Federal Credit Union at 330-755-7556.