Olmsted Falls shows no fear

Only one other team has done what Olmsted Falls pulled off March 9 in the district championship.

In 25 games, two teams have beaten fourthranked Lorain: Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, and now the Bulldogs. In fact, Olmsted Falls is the only team all season to never let Lorain take a lead in a game.

The Bulldogs spoiled any chance of a Lorain-St. Vincent-St. Mary rematch and now get the chance to prove winning that district championship trophy they’ve displayed proudly in their locker room was no oneoff when they face the seventhranked Fighting Irish in the Division I regional semifinals on March 13.

“It wasn’t a fluke,” senior Ryan Higginbotham said. “We had a good game plan. We watched the film. We knew all their tendencies, what they’re good at, and we’re gonna do that for Wednesday’s game. We’re gonna look at who their best players are, what they like to do and how we’re gonna stop them.”

It’s that confidence in its abilities that’s elevated Olmsted Falls to the biggest stage any of the current players have been on in their high school careers.

When the Bulldogs beat Lorain, it was the program’s first district championship since 2009 and the first for head coach Chris DeLisio since taking over the program in 2010.

Quite the opposite of its opponent considering Lorain has advanced to the past five district title games while winning three championships in that span.

Despite what it was up against, the Bulldogs woke up the morning of March 9 feeling loose and ready to play, bringing their signature high energy many teams aren’t used to seeing and playing with a swagger that suggested maybe the rankings had it wrong the whole time.

“The funny thing is I don’t think me or anybody on this team really thought we were gonna go into that game and lose, so I mean, I don’t think we had a game plan other than do what we do and dominate,” senior Michael Fritz said. “We came out to win. I don’t think anyone’s shocked. I think we were planning to win the whole time.”

Olmsted Falls has displayed that fearlessness all season but only recently has it been truly brought to light thanks to the big stage of the postseason.

There was no playing timid against Lorain; no playing timid against Lakewood as the district semifinal game against the Rangers headed to overtime. While their opponents appeared frazzled down the stretch, the Bulldogs remained composed as their competitive drive kicked into full gear.

DeLisio has watched that level of competition grow from when he coached many of the current players as freshman, and seen the way they’ve harnessed that energy to produce nearly perfect results.

Since 2015-16 when the eight current seniors were freshman, Olmsted Falls has steadily increased its winning percentage, going from 14-8 in 2015-16 to now 23-2 in 2018-19, and in the past two years has posted back-to-back 20win seasons, two Southwestern Conference cham- pionships and now a district championship.

Yes, the Bulldogs are immensely talented up and down the roster, but have been arguably outmatched since the district semifinals, so they’ve used the one thing that gives them the edge over any opponent: fearlessness.

“It’s really rare in my experience with all the teams that we’ve had even before I was a head coach, it’s rare to get maybe like five, six, seven really competitive kids,” DeLisio said. “Typically we’ll maybe have three guys, but there’s always a couple guys who are scared of the moment, and I don’t think we have that at all. I think we have a bunch of guys who actually embrace it. They actually love it.

“I think that’s been a big part of our success is our guys compete all the time no matter what we’re doing. It doesn’t matter if it’s practice or we go to a team dinner and they’re playing a game, they just kind of love it and that’s been their attitudes.

... We’ve really worked on that a lot not just this season but in all these guys’ careers, having those conversations about how to handle those situations mentally.”

Maintaining that fearless attitude is what the Bulldogs know will keep them in the game against a storied team like St. Vincent-St. Mary. They know the task. They know what’s at stake.

At this point, there’s nothing to lose. There never has been. Which will make it all the more special if Olmsted Falls can pull off another stunning upset and show everyone what it’s known inside the program the whole time: This team is here to win.

“We’re just gonna come out with our same intensity we always do,” senior Braden Galaska said. “We can’t get too confident. Just like Lorain, they’re a really good team…we have to keep sticking with our plan. Keep taking deep breaths. Soak it in. Have some fun with it.

“However the outcome plays, we’re gonna give it our best shot and see what happens.”