Best friends, players carry on late Russia coach’s legacy

Hugs and tears.

Too many to count have been part of the Russia boys basketball program this season. On Oct. 8, head coach Dave Borchers was critically injured in a car wreck. On Oct. 14, he died. On Oct. 28, his team started practice.

On March 1, his team — that’s absolutely how everyone associated with Russia sees it — defeated Catholic Central 70-58 to win a Division IV district title at UD Arena.

And there were more hugs and more tears. And there were smiles. Not for the first time this season, but these smiles meant the most because they were all thinking about their coach and friend and how happy he would be.

“I tell the kids every day no matter what game it is, it’s a big game because you’re playing in it,” said interim assistant coach Brad Francis, who was best friends with Borchers since the were 8 years old. “But to get tonight’s win was pretty special. I thought of Dave a lot today and just continue to think of him. He’s a dear friend, and we miss him dearly.”

Borchers, never one to seek the spotlight, coached Russia’s JV team for 18 years. He became head coach in 2019 when Spencer Cordonnier had to step back to an assistant role because of his job demands. When Borchers died, Cordonnier became interim head coach. Cordonnier and Francis, who rejoined the staff in October, insist on the interim label because they think of Borchers as the head coach.

At every game this season, home and away, and during the tournament, Borchers is announced as the head coach. His name is in the tournament program. Francis said he tears up every time he hears his friend’s name announced.

“He was conditioning the kids, running all the preseason practices and everything,” Francis said.

“He’s our coach. He just is.”

Cordonnier and Borchers saw this season coming for more than a year. And Cordonnier gives full credit to Borchers for preparing the team to face Troy Christian in Tuesday’s 8 p.m. regional semifinal at Fairmont High School’s Trent Arena. He has seen a group of sophomores, juniors and seniors care only about winning, a trait Borchers cultivated.

“Last summer and last year, when Dave was still with us, that’s what they started to be,” Cordonnier said. “They started to change who they were and what they wanted to be. Not that they were selfish before, but it was a matter of getting every ounce of ability out of them.

“And teaching them that life’s not easy. And that when you get out of here, and you go in that nasty world that it is right now, nobody’s going to give anything to you, and they’re surely in hell not going to give it to you at UD Arena in the district finals. So for them to fight their way through that ... there’s been a lot of nights where there’s been a lot of emotion early on when all that stuff was going on and how are we going to get through this?

“They just bought into let’s be dogs. Let’s just be dogs and work as hard as we can, control what we can control. We say it before every game. You can control how hard you play. You can’t control anything other than that. You can’t control it when the ball leaves your hands.”

The coaches and players never miss a chance to honor Borchers’ memory. And Cordonnier knows it’s never easy because “for 90% of these kids it’s probably the closest person they’ve ever lost to them.”

They wear a patch on their uniform that says “Coach.” When the starters are announced and trot to the center of the floor, they have a ritual.

“Every time they come out they touch it and they point to the sky,” Cordonnier said. “They know he’s looking down. He was very special person who cared very deeply for them.”

There are T-shirts that say “Be Like Dave.” And it was Doug Borchers, Dave’s brother, in one of those T-shirts who climbed the ladder and made the final cut to the net and waved it to the crowd. He’s been one of the team’s scorebook keepers this season.

“When Doug’s out there keeping the book, the players fist bump him before every game,” Cordonnier said.

Borchers was Cordonnier’s eighth-grade coach. He was JV coach Cody Anthony’s coach. But no one in the program knew Borchers better than Francis.

Their dads started a business together in the 1960s, they grew up 200 yards apart, they played kickball, football and whatever game they invented. They were college roommates at Dayton. They were both math teachers. They were like brothers.

As the final seconds ticked away on the district championship, Francis walked down the bench high-fiving everyone. When the buzzer sounded, the four coaches hugged each other at the far end of the bench. They smiled, but there were no dry eyes.

“I like to tell people we’re not a little feel-good story,” Francis said. “We still grieve every day.”