The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Elyria to be underdogs no longer
Get ready Akron. Actually, strike that. Get ready Ohio.
I have a sneaking suspicion Elyria is going to be your bane for quite a while.
The Pioneers won their third state title in program history on June 3, topping Lebanon, 4-3, in a wild finish that takes a separate article (left) to accurately describe.
It’s not hard to imagine a few more titles aren’t far behind — all you have to do is take a quick glance at the roster to see that:
• Seniors: Two. • Juniors: Five. • Sophomores: One. • Freshmen: Seven. That’s right. The 2017 Division I state champion Pioneers had 47 percent of their roster comprised of freshman.
You hate to use a word like dynasty when it comes to high school sports, but the Elyria program is one that appears to be heading that way.
But that’s the future — which is incredibly bright.
This title, it is in the here and now.
And it shouldn’t be overlooked because of the future.
Coach Ken Fenik said he was wondering at one point this season if his team would even get a win in district play.
Then, when they qualified for regional play, he was hoping for just one more win. Now? “I don’t want to win any more games,” Fenik said. “We did it.”
And they did it while being an underdog for most of the playoffs.
The Pioneers acknowledged they felt like underdogs.
“I mean, I don’t think we came into this season thinking, like, we’re going to win state this year,” Macy Taylor, who scored the title-clinching run said. “Everyone was saying that we do have a lot of freshmen, but we just kept trusting each other. And as the season went on, we won districts and then we won regionals and, we blink, and now we’ve won state.”
But none of the Elyria athletes chose to use a common phrase associated with underdogs: Cinderella. And rightfully so. Why? Cinderella teams never win the whole thing.
They always come up short.
They’re never the champions.
And that is not true of the Pioneers.
They are the 2017 Division I state champions of Ohio.