Hannah Plybon, Orrville Alums & March Madness

Akron's Hannah Plybon (L) and Ball State's Brandy Woody fight for a loose ball in the first half March 15, 2014 during the championship game of the 2014 Mid-American Conference Women's Basketball Tournament at Quicken Loans Arena. (John Kuntz / The Plain Dealer)

If you're a supporter of Red Rider athletics, you were no doubt smiling this past weekend at the news of 2013 OHS alum Hannah Plybon and the Akron Zips women's basketball team winning the Mid-American Conference tournament.

The win over Ball State at the Q Arena in Cleveland was not only the program's first MAC title since it's inception, but the win also clinched the first ever berth in the NCAA Women's Tournament for the Zips.
Hannah had 9 points (on three 3-pointers) in the win and continues to be a steady contributor.

The Zips received the 13th seed in the "Notre Dame" bracket and will face 4th seeded Purdue this Saturday on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN.

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Hannah & the Zips qualifying for "March Madness" got me thinking about how many other Red Rider alums have taken part in the pinnacle of college basketball.  Several names came to mind right away, but I needed reminded of others, and some I had completely forgot.  Thanks to several readers, my memory was jolted and I was able to research the rest.

Winter Sports Schedules, Car Raffle, Flag Football & More

Lots going on in this post...grab a cup of coffee.

Winter Sports
Hard to believe that the winter sports season is upon us with all winter sports regular seasons beginning this week.

Courtesy of the Orrville Booster Club Website, here are the links to the boys basketball, girls basketball and wrestling schedules.

A new wrinkle in both boys and girls basketball is that the regular seasons will now be 22 games instead of 20. Not sure why the change was made. I'd think it will lead to more weeknight games and back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. I can't think coaches are too keen on either situation...especially if winter weather forces some rescheduling. Teams could be playing a weeknight game AND a Friday and Saturday game.

For the boys, their two extra games will be at Smithville on December 15th and against Carrollton in the Timken Mercy Classic in North Canton, on Sunday Jan. 20th. It's been since 1994 that an Orrville boys team has played in Smithville's Berkey Fieldhouse..but that was a tournament game (a loss) against Norwayne. Wonder how long it's been since we played Smithville at their gym? Decades for sure. That will be an interesting evening of basketball.

The boys will again participate in the WQKT Steve Smith Holiday Hoops Classic at the College of Wooster. They'll be the final game of the evening at 8:45 and will face the Northwest Indians. Here's a great link to WQKT showing the lineup for this year and for all games since the Classic's inception in 2004.  Orrville has lost the last 2 games in the Classic, to Hillsdale and Hiland, after winning the first 5 beginning in 2005.

The girls will be a part of the Classic in the Country at Hiland HS, this year against Reedsville Eastern at 10am on the first day of the classic, Saturday January 19th.  Reedsville made regionals last season in Division 4 and this past fall in volleyball...so guessing they're primed for another strong run in basketball.

Plybon Points
One of the more interesting storylines this basketball season will be senior (and University of Akron commit) Hannah Plybon's pursuit of the all-time girls scoring record.  By my count, she has 1,380 points heading into the season.  Stacie Howard has the current record of 1,480, so Hannah is exactly 100 points away from the record.  If she maintains her roughly 20 points per game average, she should get the record in game 4 (at Lexington, Thursday Dec. 13th) or at home against West Holmes on Saturday December 15th.

Just for fun, the all-time boys record is Marcell Denson's 1,722, and that record could be in danger as well if Hannah averages 20 points per game over 20+ games.  She's got an outside shot at 2,000 points, something that no Wayne County player has ever done according to the OHSAA. I'd love to know Wooster grad Marcie Alberts' career total (EDIT: Her career total is 1695 per this link), but no other Wayne County girl comes to mind that could have broken the 2,000 point barrier.  Chippewa's Tonya Smoot holds the career scoring mark among county schools with 1,745.  Fellow Lady Chipps Charbea Haller & Sue Porter have 1,723 & 1,533 respectively.  Smithville's Jenna Pew had 1,679.

To get to 2,000, she'd have to average around 25 points per game and the team would have to make a deep run to at least the regional final.

House That 'Smitty' Built
This will also be the final season for winter sports in the current gym.  Next season, events will be held in the new gym currently being built.  Boys basketball season ticket holders this year will get first crack at season tickets in the new gym next year.  The date to remember is Tuesday December 11th at 6pm, that's when first time season ticket holders can get seats, or existing season ticket holders can change their current seats for new ones.

I've been told that the "Bob Knight Gymnasium" name will follow the move to the new gym, and that's fine, but a bigger part of me says that there needs to some sort of recognition of Smitty, the coach who put Orrville basketball on the map and hung 3 state title banners in the 1990's.

What about "Steve Smith Court at Bob Knight Gymnasium?"  I know that's a little wordy, but I don't think anyone would mind.  Would be a great honor to a great coach.  At least some sort of recognition in the gym for his accomplishments, maybe on a banner listing his time at Orrville, his wins, league titles, district titles, regional titles and of course the 3 state titles.

Whatever is done, I sure hope we see banners like this at one end of the gym...and it needs to recognize ALL sports, not just winter sports.  Recognize league titles, district titles, regional titles, final four appearances and state titles of all sports...and have another banner listing individual state champs in golf, cross country, wrestling, etc.  We're all proud of our tradition, so lets put it where people can see it and be proud of it. 

Car Raffle
One more reminder about the Booster Club raffle.  The drawing for the new Chevy Cruze courtesy of Serpentini Chevrolet will be held on Friday December 28th at halftime of the boys basketball game against Clear Fork.  2nd prize is a 47" LG brand TV from Bennet's Appliance and 3rd prize is a recliner from Browns Furniture.  Tickets are $10 and can be purchased from any Booster Club officer or at Tom Brenner's Crown Investments office on West High St.

Alumni Game
This past Friday, 21 Orrville football alumni gathered on the turf at Heartland Field for a friendly game of flag football.  Each player tossed in $10 to benefit the turf replacement fund.  This is just one more event that could not have been held on a grass field.  The red team beat the white team 34-28.  It is hoped that this tradition will continue and grow next year.  Thanks to Stephen Carozza, Mike McMorrow and Tommy Brenner for organizing this event.

Turf Picture
Speaking of turf, here's a real nice panorama of the turf field that was taken last week.  Looks like there was some frost on the field so it must have been early in the morning.  Looks great, especially with everything around it (trees, grass) dying off for the season.  Feel free to download and view offline as the file is 6 MB big and shows some great detail if you zoom in.

That's all for now...good luck to the winter sports teams.  Go Riders!!

Great weekend to be a Red Rider!!

Some great accomplishments for Red Rider athletes & Red Rider alums over the weekend. It's tournament time, and that's apparently when Red Riders shine their brightest.

Swimming
Orrville junior Madison Monheim turned in two All-Ohio performances in her 2nd consecutive trip to the state finals in Canton.  She placed 10th in the 200yd. freestyle in a personal best time of 1:55.37.  I noticed that 6 of the 9 swimmers who finished ahead of her were seniors, so I'd like to think her chances of finishing in the top 5 next year are excellent.

She also finished 12th in the 500yd. freestyle event, also in a personal best time of 5:11.46.

Congrats Madison.  Now a 3-time All-Ohioan.  I hope she's getting some attention from colleges.

Wrestling
Orrville will again send wrestlers to the state meet in Columbus this coming weekend, as seniors Trevor White (2nd) and Ronnie Lehtomaki (3rd) both punched their tickets by finishing in the top 4 of their weight classes.  Both are making their first appearance at state.  With 3-time state champ Felipe Martinez (Genoa) withdrawing from districts due to a family obligation, the 170 lb. class seems to be wide open.  Ronnie upset the #7 and #8 ranked wrestlers in the 2012 Brakeman Report to punch his ticket to Columbus, and then beat the #14 ranked wrestler for 3rd place just for good measure.

Congrats to both and to Coach Hamsher & his staff.  It's now been 6 straight years that Orrville has sent at least 1 wrestler to state.  Impressive.

In the college ranks, an Orrville grad made some noise over the weekend.  Wabash College junior Jake Strasbaugh competed in the NCAA Midwest Regional that was held at Cleveland State University.  From Wabash's article...

Strausbaugh entered the tournament as the top seed at 149 pounds. He dominated the early rounds, winning 12-3 in his opener followed by a pin at the 1:55 mark in his next match. A 7-3 victory sent him to the finals against Cameryn Brady. Strausbaugh battled throughout the contest, fighting to a 1-1 tie late in the match after trailing 1-0. Brady was able to hold on and score the final point to win 2-1. A 3-1 loss to Olivet's Gage Pederson in the "true second" bout eliminated Strausbaugh from alternate consideration. Strausbaugh finished the year with a record of 45-6. He entered the regional tied for second in the nation in total wins this season, and completes his junior year with a career mark of 131-26, placing him third on the all-time Wabash wins list behind Healy and Rhoads.

Tough way to end for Jake.  That "True Second" match is interesting.  In high school wrestling, the loser of the championship match is automatically awarded 2nd place, but in college, the loser of the championship match must face the winner of the consolation bracket to establish the "true second" finisher.  Gives hope to a wrestler who loses a match that they can still earn 2nd place, but makes it double tough on the loser of the championship match to put that loss behind them and wrestle against an opponent who has won a few matches in a row.

Girls Basketball
The Lady Riders earned a sectional championship by beating Loudonville 62-42 and have advanced to the district semifinals against Dalton on March 1st at 8pm.  That game will follow Smithville/Canton CC.  Both games will be played at Triway HS.

Orrville junior Hannah Plybon ended the season with 396 points, and with 13 in the tourney opener against Tuslaw, has surpassed the 400 point mark for the 2nd straight season.  Her current career points total is 1332 (437 for the season), which puts her in 3rd place all-time, just 36 points behind Rhonda Winters' total of 1368, and just 138 points shy of Stacie Howard's all-time record of 1470.

Boys Basketball
The Riders boys ended the season at 7-13 (for the second straight season) and will open tourney play against Chippewa on 2/29 at 6pm at Wooster High School.  If they win, they would most likely play Loudonville on Saturday night at 7:30pm.

This is a wide open district that any of 5 or 6 teams could win it, so it will come down to which team is playing the best over the next 2 weeks.  We've seen glimpses of what this team is capable of, it's just a matter of going out and executing.

I don't mean to make this a point of bragging, but I don't think an Orrville team has lost a district tournament game on the floor of the new Wooster HS.  The school opened up in 1994, so the first district held there was in 1995, and we won that district on our way to state.  In 1996, we moved up to division 2 and didn't play districts there, and I'm pretty sure we were division 2 ever since, up until 2009-10 when we dropped back down to Division 3, and we've won the last 6 tournament games on that court.

The 1995 district final win over Norwayne was held at the Canton Fieldhouse, so technically only 2 wins that year were at Wooster.  And in 2010, the district final was held at the College of Wooster. So by my count, that's still an 8-0 record in tournament games played at Wooster HS since it first held a district tournament in 1995.

Bolyard shines at UNOH
It wasn't the best season for The University of Nortwestern Ohio men's basketball team, but it was an impressively good season for their leading scorer and Orrville grad, Jake Bolyard.  Just a 7-23 record for the Racers, but Bolyard averaged a school record 22.4 points per game and was recently named 2nd Team All-Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) for his efforts.  His scoring average was 3rd best in all of NAIA Division 2, and he ranked in the top 16 of eight different offensive categories among WHAC players.

Makes you wonder what a guy has to do to make the first team?  Congrats Jake!!
College Riders
I mentioned to of our alumni excelling in college, but I'm always interested in hearing about others.  Please check out my "College Riders" section and let me know if I've left anyone out.  I just reviewed the list and had some new additions and removed some too.

Bob Knight Special
If you missed the premiere of the full 30 minute special of Coach Bob Knight coming back to Orrville, be sure to catch it.  Excellently done.  It will re-air Monday 2/27 at 6:30pm and Wednesday 2/29 at 6pm on ESPNU.

Here's that Bob Knight/ESPN video filmed in Orrville

Orrville never looked so good, huh?

If you missed it, here it is. Orrville's own Bob Knight, former Indiana University head basketball coach, former Texas Tech head basketball coach, current ESPN college basketball analyst and forever a Red Rider, comes back to his hometown with an ESPN camera crew to talk about growing up in Jellytown.

Click 'play' above to play the clip.  Readers who get their updates via email will probably have to click here to see the clip.

From the OHSAA: Historical All-Ohio Lists

Saw this a few weeks ago on the OHSAA twitter account and just haven't had time to get it up until now.

This is quite the historical find. It's 3 things actually...first is an all-time list of boys basketball All-Ohio teams dating back to the 1938-39 season. Next is a list of girls basketball All-Ohio teams dating back to 1977-78 (first year as an OHSAA recognized sport). Lastly, it's a list of All-Ohio football teams going back to 1933.

Keep reading for the link and more on the first Orrville All-Ohioans.

The link is here. As it mentions, it was compiled by Associated Press member Rusty Miller and lots of thanks go his way for his diligence.

Some of the files are tough to read so make sure you zoom in as needed....but grab a cup of coffee and go back in time.

Being an Orrville-centric site, I wanted to see who the first Orrville athletes were to be name All-Ohio in each of the three sports....and I think I've found what I'm looking for.

1. First girls basketball All-Ohioan was Rhonda Winters who made 3rd team in the 1982-83 season.

2. First boys basketball All-Ohioan was Ron Snyder who was named Honorable Mention in the 1965-66 season.

3. First football All-Ohioan were Roy Lockett (tackle) and Tyrone Barnett (halfback) in 1960.

One warning on the validity of these....some of the data from past years show a first, second and third team plus special (or honorable) mention....while some years only showed a first & second team.

It is amazing to see how players from large metropolitan areas seemed to land on All-Ohio teams, while players in small towns were largely overlooked. In football especially....lots of players from Canton, Massillon, Mansfield and Cleveland for the first few decades of All-Ohio teams. I don't think a Wayne County player was even named All-Ohio in football until the mid 50's and he was from Wooster.

What is also noteworthy was how prestigious an All-Ohio honor was 50 years ago compared to how it is now. Back then it was a team of 11 in football and 5 in basketball. Now, several players at each position are chosen, and there are a 1st, 2nd and 3rd team PLUS honorable and special mention. It's just not as exclusive as it used to be. Not sure if that's good or bad, but the measuring stick has certainly changed.

I figured Bobby Knight would surely be our first All-Ohioan in basketball in 1957 when he averaged 24.3 points per game or in 1958 when he averaged 20.6 per game, but he's not there in either season. His Ohio State teammates Jerry Lucas and John Havlicek are both on the list.

Over the next few months, I'm going to compile lists of Orrville All-Ohioans in each of the three sports. I'll post to the 'Records & Champions' section of the site when they're completed.

Really like seeing the OHSAA continuing to the living history of their member schools. Lots of great athletes have got their start in Ohio and records, especially those prior to 1970, are difficult to come by. Great work by lots of people.

Happy reading!!

Cool Picture: Bobby Knight Gymnasium - Orrville, OH

This was taken right before tipoff of the Orrville/Triway girls game this past Saturday.

As always, click the image to see it full size.

My Top 10 of 2010 - # 3 and # 2

This is my Top 10 Red Rider Sports Blog Moments of 2010. See the full list of posts here. 

We're down to just a few on this countdown.  I chatted with a follower of the blog and Orrville alum today.  Said he was "on the edge of his seat" to see the final three.  Pretty sure it wasn't facetious.

Anyway, two familiar subjects on today's list...and I don't think there's any denying either from the top 10.  You could argue each could be #1.