The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Top dogs still underdogs
Lorain staying grounded, working harder than ever in spite of target on its back this year
Lorain players and coaches sat at the podium during a news conference after a tough loss to Cincinnati Moeller in last season’s Division I state semifinal and didn’t pout. They didn’t cry. They didn’t make excuses.
They were simply ready to get back to work.
Months later, with the 2018-19 season just days away, the Titans all have one word to describe the weeks before their first game on Dec. 1: Eager.
“We’re real eager,” senior Devon Grant said. “We’re eager for our first game, our last game — we’re just eager to play throughout this whole year.”
It’s not surprising to stand on the sideline at practice and feel that anxious energy as Lorain attempts to follow up its most successful season in program history with a repeat performance.
Nearly everyone from the state semifinal team is back, including four starters.
The Titans lost forward David Weatherington and guard Jaiden Sledge, but return its top playmakers — Grant, an All-Ohio point guard, and Taevon Pierre-Louis.
Jordan Jackson and Kam Davis are back, too, and Lorain has added even more depth with the transfer of Deonte Benejan from Archbishop Molloy
in Queens, New York.
There is no doubt in the Titans’ minds that they should be in the hunt for another state tournament berth, but how does the team go from a season with zero expectations to one that feels as if the entire state is watching?
“We’ve talked all the time about staying humble, staying hungry and not getting comfortable,” Coach John Rositano said. “They’re following that motto. In practice they’re playing hard, in scrimmages they’re out-working teams. These guys, they love to play, they’re just naturally hard workers and they’re winners.”
It was a pure love of each other and a love of
the game that fueled Lorain all last season. But to go from a starting five who had played together since early elementary school to one with a transfer all the way from the East Coast, it is possible that challenges would arise.
However, that has not been the case. Rather, all that was needed is to work hard and adopt the Titans’ ever-present winning attitude.
“These guys want to win and they see somebody that can come in, and Deonte’s very humble, and they want to win and they know he can help us win,” Rositano said. “They’ve welcomed him in, and it’s like he’s been here as long as the other guys. He fits
right in. He knows what he can do, what he can’t do, and it’s been almost a seamless transition. These guys want to win and he can help us.”
Benejan played with Grant and Pierre-Louis over the summer on an Ohio Basketball Club AAU team, so there was a familiarity as the high school season approached.
But now the junior says it’s like he’s been playing for Lorain as long as the rest.
“If you see us play, it feels like we’ve been playing together for a really long time and we only just started,” Benejan said. “I fit right into the team. I’m in the flow of the offense already, and my defense has gotten way better and we play great as a team.
“They welcomed me right away. They trust me with the ball. They trust me to make big plays. They don’t hesitate to pass me the ball when I’m open. They invited me right into the offense, right into the flow of the defense. The coaches trust me and they expect a lot from me this year and I’m ready to give them what they expect.”
Benejan’s not the only one with high expectations.
Those in and around the community, and likely all of Ohio, expect great things out of this ultratalented Lorain team, and while going from underdog to top-dog seems like a lot of pressure, nothing has changed at Lorain.
“We know what to expect from our teammates and from each other,” Pierre-Louis said. “The outside, we’re not really paying attention to it.”
“It’s added pressure from the outside because now more people are watching us and they expect us to do good. But we’re still going to have the same expectations from the inside,” Davis added. “We’re still going to play hard no matter what, whoever we play.”
As for Grant, he’s keeping that underdog mentality.
“It’s just going to be the same thing as last year,” he said. “Having that chip on our shoulder and playing like the underdogs.”