When a new coach takes over the varsity reins of a high school athletic team, perhaps too often he or she emphasizes the need for a change in culture or a clean slate in order to build a successful program.
Athlete, non-athlete; class clown, bookworm; popular, inconspicuous – it did not matter. When someone came knocking for a friendship, his door was always wide open.
He used to take his kids to Indians games, point up at the “Indians” script above the big scoreboard at Jacobs Field and tell them how their dad put that up there.
Hunter Jenkins knew he didn’t want to gamble with his playing time in college lacrosse, as the 2016 Solon graduate went on to start all four years with the Division III Terriers at Hiram.
Jeff Javorek wasn’t planning on staying at West Geauga forever, but he also wasn’t planning on leaving so soon.
It was always easy to find her.
Josh Irwin could retire his high school jersey tomorrow and arguably be recognized as the best basketball player to go through West Geauga.
When it’s tournament day, he’s there to bring it.
Connor O’Toole could have gotten sick and tired of his older brother during all of their stay-at-home time together over the course of the past few months. Maybe he did.
Derrick Zeigler grew up in an all-black community and went to an all-black school in inner Detroit. He didn’t have a whole lot of interaction with white players or white coaches until he played basketball at Cleveland State University.
Everywhere else she went was just a comparable.
Solon football has experienced the successes and tribulations in the trenches just the same as any other Division I high school football program going through the constant growing pains of graduation.
She’s just now starting to feel comfortable calling herself an athlete.
Spring is his favorite time of the year.
Gilmour Academy seniors Garrett Olsen and Ian Miller were far too successful on the basketball court as starters the past two seasons, not to mention Olsen’s state-caliber baseball craft, to be any sort of bookworms.
They probably would have graduated from college last year and been well on their way to finding meaning in their professional lives.
All the other recruits were treated to a highlight video to draw them, but Will Meyer wasn’t allowed to view the reel of past successes for the University of Akron men’s soccer program.
The Fairmont State University men’s basketball program needs a shooter right away. Brendan Paul, a 2017 Hawken School graduate, has the goods to deliver.
He was on the final leg of his 600-mile journey around Lake Erie, but he was also riding on his final spare tire for his Surly Disc Trucker bicycle.
Sidelined by a bum knee just four matches into her senior season, it would have been easy to just call it quits and say she had one heck of a college career to look back on and be proud of.
Solon senior Ethan Berkovitz had searched near and far, but when he drove down to Delaware, Ohio, in early March and took a tour through the Battling Bishops’ locker room, he was sold.
Solon senior Greg Parries is one of the fastest runners in Ohio, finishing on the Division I state podium in both the 100- and 200-meter dashes as a junior last spring. But his passion is on the gridiron.
Cody Coley’s eighth-grade classmate Robby, a junior gold-glove boxer, was getting all muscled up, and Coley knew he had to get in on it too.
University School eighth-grader Luke Maslowski, of Moreland Hills, and his fellow Cleveland Barons puck-handlers advanced to the district championship title game, but that was probably about as good as it would get.
Oxford, Ohio, wasn’t cutting it.
Solon 5-foot-11 junior Hailey Weaver was busy chasing another deep playoff run with her Lady Comet teammates during Division I hoops in late February, and that was all that mattered.
Trevor Hamm was grounded in confinement for a two-week holdover during U.S. Army Ranger School at the Fort Benning military base in Georgia, just a stone’s throw from the Alabama state line.
When news broke March 23 that the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games would be postponed a year, it was earth-shattering to some athletes whose world presence only becomes relevant every four years.
Solon 2019 graduate Mike Bekelja will be taking his basketball talents to Duquesne University to join the Division I Dukes in Pittsburgh.
Girls Basketball
Working in a man’s league, women are influencing the NBA now more than ever.
Jonathan Kostoff scouted the Kenston girls soccer team twice this past fall, first during a 1-1 draw against Mayfield and then a 2-1 loss against Chagrin Falls.
Gilmour Academy 15th-year head varsity hockey coach John Malloy might have been feeling sorry for his players, including four seniors who punched their program’s first state final-four ticket since 2011.
Solon fifth-year head wrestling coach Audie Atienza was already on the road to Columbus with 160-pound senior Jack Mack, who was set to make his state wrestling debut last Thursday at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center.
Solon 13-year-old Dominic Roberto was just getting settled on the 7 1/2-meter platform during his second season diving that height at the 2019 USA Diving Junior National Championships this past August in Tennessee.
He was busy packing his suitcase last Thursday knowing that this year’s state wrestling tournament wouldn’t be the same.
The Gilmour Academy Icemen were putting a short-handed forecheck into effect like they had all season behind one of the most dominant penalty-kill units in Ohio.
Hawken School wrestling booked a pair of return trips to the big dance behind the district champion duo of sophomore Patrick Reineke and senior William Lindsey on the Division III mats Friday and Saturday at Garfield Heights.
It’s been three years in the making, but Kenston 145-pound senior Nick Nastasi is heading back to the Division I state wrestling tournament beginning this Thursday at Ohio State University’s Schottenstein Center in Columbus.
With a 16-0 tech fall in his opening bout, Solon 160-pound senior Jake Mack couldn’t have asked for a much better start during the Division I district wrestling tournament Friday and Saturday in Mentor.
If the Solon boys fell behind by more than a few possessions, then their game plan would be out the window during their Division I boys basketball district championship game against Shaker Heights on Saturday afternoon in Twinsburg.
Solon senior Jake Mack, Solon sophomore Nick Gerome and Kenston senior Nick Nastasi opened their postseason runs with sectional titles during the 10-team Division I wrestling tournament on Saturday at Kenston.
The longest active streak of consecutive district titles among Division I girls basketball programs in Ohio is over.
The Solon basketball boys (17-6) owned a whopping 5-4 lead at the quarter mark of their Division I district quarterfinal game against No. 6-seed Bedford (9-15) on Saturday night in a true home game for the Comets.
The Gilmour Academy Icemen were hounding University School senior goalie Michael Holtz with 15 shots on cage, but nothing was going in during the first period of a district semifinal collision on Saturday night in Kent.
Chagrin Falls senior John Cashy and junior Michael Tropf couldn’t bear to look.
The Solon boys were favored to fare well, but seeds didn’t count for diddly-squat during the Division I state diving competition on Saturday morning at Branin Natatorium in Canton.
The state No. 3-ranked Gilmour Academy Icemen (27-7-1) struggled none during their playoff opener against Kent Roosevelt (12-19-1) on Saturday evening at Kent State University’s ice arena.
The competition was different, but the 1-meter springboards were the same for Kenston senior Mary O’Neill during the Division II state diving competition last Wednesday at Branin Natatorium in Canton.
Gilmour Academy senior Matt Vanone smashed the touchpad in 21.82 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle during the Division II state swimming prelims last Thursday at Branin Natatorium in Canton.
