Hardesty
The hard way on purpose
Two down, one to go.
It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t smooth and it certainly wasn’t anything like we’ve experienced before, but somehow, some way, the Ohio High School Athletic Association is still batting 1.000 on completed sports seasons this school year after whiffing on two of three last year.
A year ago at this time, we had just witnessed the heart-wrenching cancelation of the girls and boys state basketball tournaments, followed by the OHSAA’s decision to also cancel the entire spring sports season, due to the rapidly emerging novel coronavirus pandemic.
And as the cancelation dominoes fell in virtually every aspect of our lives, student-athletes, coaches and administrators across the state wondered if the stadium and gymnasium lights would be on in the 2020-21 school year.
Or, more poignantly, if they should be on. The future never looked so dark.
A year later, the high school fall and winter sports seasons have been played to conclusion, with spring sports up next. Barring any sort of catastrophe, they, too, will play a season in the next couple months and crown champions.
It truly has been a triumph of the human spirit.
Yes, it would have been easy to continue to duck and cover in the face of Covid-19. It would have been easy to put high school athletics on indefinite hold until the vaccine rollout was well under way. It would have been easy to skip sports entirely this school year and start fresh in 2021-22.
Easy, but wrong.
Everything in life comes with risk. The world is rife with disease, violence, accidents, bad luck, you name it. Nobody’s tomorrow is guaranteed. Living in fear of what might happen is counterproductive to actually living.
So the OHSAA—and the sports world in general—found ways to make it work as safely as possible: Face coverings, social distancing, attendance limitations, etc. The lights were turned back on at the stadiums and gymnasiums, and the fall and winter sports seasons have been completed.
And the future looks a lot brighter for it.
Congratulations are in order for coach Aaron Gilbert and the Garfield girls basketball team, which is beginning to make trips to the regional tournament a somewhat regular appearance.
The G-Men won their third district championship since 2015 this season when they defeated Champion 64-54 in the Division III Northeast 2 title game Feb. 27. They were impressive throughout their title run, cruising past Conneaut 67-22 in the sectional finals and downing Rootstown 59-37 in the district semis.
Garfield’s tournament trail ended with a 65-46 loss to Apple Creek Waynedale in the regional semifinals.
The win over Champion avenged last year’s district final loss to the Golden Flashes in what has become a postseason rivalry between the two squads. The G-Men defeated Champion in the 2017 district finals and eventually reached the regional championship game that season before falling to Gates Mills Gilmour Academy.
Portage County was not without a state champion this winter.
Aurora’s Dylan Fishback captured the 195-pound title at the Division II state wrestling tournament March 13-14, helping the Greenmen place sixth as a team. Aurora’s Codie Cuerbo narrowly missed the championship at 106 pounds, finishing runner-up with a 5-4 loss in the finals.
In a true sign of the times, the state wrestling tourney, normally held at Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center in Columbus, was broken into three high school locations due to Covid-19 protocols: Hilliard Darby for Division I, Highland High School near Sparta for Division II and Marion Harding for Division III.
The boys and girls basketball state tournaments were also moved from their customary home at the Schottenstein Center to the newly renovated University of Dayton Arena. The boys tournament was last played at UD Arena in 1986 and 1987 due to scheduling conflicts at Ohio State’s St. John Arena.
The renovation at UD Arena was a three-year, $76 million project—the largest construction project in university history.
Talk about your fast starts.
Former Mogadore softball standout Paige Halliwill is already assaulting the record books at Marshall University. The freshman started her college career by slamming home runs as her first two hits with the Thundering Herd, the first player in Marshall history to do so.
Halliwill eventually recorded an extra-base hit in five straight games to tie for the second-longest streak in team history and the first to do it in her first five games.
So much for getting acclimated to the college game.
Tom Hardesty is a Portager Sports columnist
tom@theportager.com
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