Newark seeks to end area big-school title drought
In 1999, girls basketball fans living outside central Ohio might have left the arena long before the trophy presentation and the nets being cut down because they had witnessed the celebration so many times before.
Pickerington, which at the time was the first name in the girls game, defeated Mason 46-30 that season to win the Division I championship for the second straight season and sixth time since 1985.
Back then, area teams dominated the big-school division. Besides Pickerington, Brookhaven (1996), Upper Arlington (’88), South (’86) and Northland (’82) also won titles as Central District teams totaled 10 championships in 18 seasons.
These days, people might wonder whether a Division I team from the area will win another.
Newark coach J.R. Shumate has been schooling his players about the significance of 1999 ahead of the Wildcats (28-0) playing Toledo Notre Dame (25-3) in a state semifinal at 8 tonight at Value City Arena.
“Ninety-nine is the number," Shumate said. “The last year a team from central Ohio won a Division I championship was in 1999. Three of our four seniors were born in 1999, and if they win the state tournament they will have won 99 games as a class."
Teams from Dayton and Cincinnati have dominated since Mason defeated Pickerington in the 2000 title game. Beavercreek won in ’01 and ’03, Cincinnati Mount Notre Dame in ’04 and from ’06-’09, Kettering Fairmont in ’13, Cincinnati Princeton in ’14 and Lakota West in ’15.
Shumate keeps replaying a 53-50 loss to Lakota West in a 2015 semifinal in which Newark missed a layup in the final 1½ minutes that would have provided a lead.
“We’ve had a lot of opportunities to win it and it has been a combination of factors why we haven’t," Shumate said of central Ohio teams. “Part of it is the way the ball bounces. Part of it is that there have been a lot of great teams from the Cincinnati area in that time.
“We do a lot of traveling to Cincinnati to watch and play those teams. We said the other day how much you can learn from other teams."
Dave Butcher, who coached Pickerington to six championships and has gotten Pickerington North to two state tournaments, said several factors have worked against Greater Columbus teams.
Chief among them, he said, is that school districts such as Dublin, Hilliard, Westerville, Olentangy, Worthington and Pickerington grew at such a rate that they opened new high schools rather than expand current ones.
“It’s just simple mathematics," Butcher said. “Our schools are smaller."
A factor for years was central Ohio having only three teams in its own regional because the district wasn’t as large as the Cincinnati area.
“Southwest Ohio has been very good and often would send its No. 1 team to the regional (at Otterbein)," said Butcher, who has 737 career wins. “We had a lot of really strong teams that just didn’t get to the state tournament. Our teams are strong. Our teams can play with those teams. But so many years we didn’t even get a representative in the state tournament."
No Columbus-area team qualified for the Division I state tournament in five times between 2001 and 2009.
Reggie Lee coached Brookhaven’s title team in 1996 with future Penn State AllAmerican and WNBA star Helen Darling, and narrowly missed making the championship game in ’03 with Brittany Hunter.
“To win it all most often is about getting a good group, and we had that in ’96," Lee said. “You also have to have good fortune. In ’03, we lost in overtime (when) Canton McKinley banked in a three-pointer from the baseline in the final seconds of regulation. Then McKinley won the championship."
Lee, who won 515 games, is bullish on Newark.
“I do think Newark can win it," he said. “I like that team because everyone can play. You can’t leave anyone open. I’d rather face a team with two stars than one like Newark."