The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Cleveland Sports Awards finalists announced
Finalists have been announced for the 21st Greater Cleveland Sports Awards. The winners will be announced during the awards show, which will be aired at 7 p.m. March 4 on WKYCTV 3 and SportsTime Ohio. Here are the finalists: • Male High School Athlete of the Year: Tyler Hong, St. Ignatius, swimming; Joe
Labas, Brecksville-Broadview Heights, football; Kentrell Marks, Valley Forge, football
• Female High School Athlete of the Year: Paige Floriea, Mentor, track and field; Ella Gilson, Hawken, cross country, track and field and swimming; Shelby Sallee, Strongsville, soccer
• Male Collegiate Athlete of the Year: Dustin Crum, Kent State, football (Midview); Dillon Dingler, Ohio State, baseball (Jackson); Michael Rose, Iowa State, football (Brecksville-Broadview Heights)
• Female Collegiate Athlete of the Year: Kelly Brennan, Baldwin Wallace, cross country (Walsh Jesuit), Camryn Brown, High Point, basketball (Revere), Naz Hillmon, Michigan, basketball (Gilmour)
• Professional Athlete of the Year: Shane Bieber, pitcher, Indians; Myles Garrett, defensive end, Browns; Collin Sexton, guard, Cavaliers
Other awards: • Cleveland Clinic Sports Medicine Courage Award: Camryn Colahan, Vermilion High School, volleyball and basketball
• Humanitarian of the Year and Best Moment in Cleveland sports: TBA
For Harvey graduates of a certain age, there is a six-word phrase that resonates through time.
“As the opportunity, so the responsibility.”
The phrase was on a marker above one of the main entrances to the old high school building on West Washington Street in Painesville for decades.
That marker is so revered in my beloved hometown that, when that building was torn down, the marker was salvaged and placed in an exhibit of recognition outside the new building.
Many of us have noted in our adulthood how we didn’t truly know what that phrase meant as teenagers.
But as we grew older, its meaning was clear.
When you are entrusted with an opportunity in the broader world in your own lot in life, you are dutybound to do right by it — not just for yourself, but for others.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of that marker and that iconic six-word phrase last week when news emerged of serious self-reported violations at Walsh Jesuit, including within its vaunted girls soccer program.
According to the OHSAA and a report in the Akron Beacon Journal, the school “self-reported a violation of Bylaw 4-9, Recruiting, when individuals within its athletic department obtained monies from outside donors and provided scholarships to students based on athletic participation.”
The violation occurred with 11 student-athletes in girls soccer and wrestling. Dino McIntyre, the Warriors’ longtime girls soccer coach at the helm of all 10 of their state title campaigns since their first in 2000, was terminated in December as a result.
“We were not accused of anything,” Walsh Jesuit president Karl Ertle told the Beacon Journal. “We discovered an issue and immediately brought in a third-party group so that we could have a full and thorough investigation. We want to be good partners with all the other schools in the OHSAA.
“We deeply apologize to all of our competitive schools and friendly rivals. We will be in complete compliance going forward.”
A long list of avenues through which the violations would be addressed was laid out.
While this situation isn’t purely about girls soccer, because the sport means so much to me personally having covered it all these years, that is the aspect on which I choose to focus here.
Walsh Jesuit is one of the cornerstone girls soccer programs in Ohio — and this is obviously a sensitive subject.
That sensitivity isn’t limited to Cuyahoga Falls and Walsh’s campus, though. It has to be difficult for all the sides over the years that have stood on the opposite touchline.
That includes several of the best girls soccer sides in News-Herald coverage area history, who have had their seasons ended by Walsh with McIntyre’s trademark flair in demand of his sides always on display.
Yes, the violations were self-reported and recent — and there is credit in that accountability. No, it certainly doesn’t mean every girl who has walked on the pitch for that program over a generation is a cheater.
But you can’t help but feel for the 11 student-athletes directly involved in this controversy, particularly if they were unaware of the improper channels
through which these scholarship funds emanated.
You can’t help but feel for the student-athletes of days gone by who built this side into the powerhouse it has been, the vast majority of whom may have conducted themselves properly.
Yet there is no way around it, even with all of that stated: This is a sad day.
Because this is such a serious matter that — like it or not, largely unmerited or not — tarnishes the legacy of a foundational program in this state.
And that stain never simply disappears.
It is important to remind ourselves in these moments, when programs of this stature face egregious charges of impropriety, of the role powerhouse high school programs have in the broader realm.
It’s no secret the most diehard partisans are incapable of viewing sports and their larger community without it being through the prism of their own school.
That doesn’t, however, make certain fundamental truths about the role of the select great programs any less relevant.
“As the opportunity, so the responsibility.”
You strive for greatness relentlessly. You work harder and you perform better than your counterparts. You build, and you
succeed.
But you lead your sport. You set an example that makes you, your broader community and your entire state proud.
You operate within the framework of the rules.
You conduct yourself with class and dignity, in victory and in defeat.
You show the way when the time comes for profound change for the betterment of all.
You don’t adversely affect other programs’ ability to succeed by supplanting their student-athletes in order to sustain your own aspirations.
You don’t humiliate vastly overmatched opposition.
You respect the line between a need for contribution and greedy indulgence.
With programs that can cast a broader geographic net, there comes a time for realization.
If a student-athlete isn’t going to regularly contribute to your program’s success, be forthright and encourage them to affect change at a program that could benefit more from their talent.
And for those studentathletes and their families who insist nonetheless to make that choice, is it about making the studentathlete, school and sport better?
Or is it about the varsity jacket and the prestige of being along for the ride?
Being the very best your sport has to offer rings more hollow if said sport isn’t evolving and improving elsewhere.
When serious missteps occur — such as the ones with Walsh Jesuit and its girls soccer side — the aftermath doesn’t transpire in an echo chamber. It matters for you. It matters for your community.
And it matters for your sport.
Consider the conundrum current and former high school girls soccer players and coaches must be having today if they were part of a side that lost to Walsh Jesuit over the last 20 years.
After hearing this news — and granted, perhaps there is a strong argument to be made that it shouldn’t — but do those match results feel different now?
Does that memory of walking off the pitch at full time on the business end of a decisive result yield more anger? Lament? Sadness?
If it does, that’s not doing right by the sport, as a standard bearer and gate keeper for its legacy and distinction, if it’s been tarnished amid that journey with impropriety.
There’s no telling how many Painesville teenagers like me walked past or under that marker for decades.
And there’s a reason why that marker still stands today back home.
Because its phrasing carried with us deep into our lives, since the message is so impactful.
When there is an opportunity in life to resonate with meaning, with it carries a solemn responsibility — not just for you, or in this case for a program.
That solemn responsibility carries for all.
Elmore James has proven to be near-unstoppable on the fast break this season.
So on Feb. 24, Willoughby South did its best to slow down James and his Brush teammates in a Division I sectional semifinal.
For a while, the visiting Rebels not only kept James in check but the rest of the Arcs’ offense as well before Brush found just enough to post a 42-34 victory.
Up next is a Feb. 26 sectional at home against Madison.
Coach Chet Mason’s team seemed to be in control midway through the third quarter after leading, 17-12, at halftime. Two Trace Bishko 3-pointers gave Brush (14-6) leads of 28-12 and 31-14, but South refused to go away.
“It’s the playoffs so now it’s all about what your strategy is,” said Mason. “I think (South’s) game plan was to slow the game down and go possession by possession. I think if that team went through the season without COVID, it would be really good.”
Mason might have a point. Coach Doug Barber’s team didn’t begin practicing until Dec. 28, and played just 13 games. The
Rebels (4-9) didn’t have a positive test within its program all season, according to Barber, and there were several pauses during the regular season.
“Our kids handled it fantastic,” said South coach Doug Barber. “Our four seniors in there, they didn’t even know if they would have a season. They kept it together. They kept the team together and we were playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”
At the game’s outset, the Rebels played a perimeter game, flinging passes around the 3-point line, then using their guards to penetrate against the bigger Arcs and looking for open shooters. They took their time, and the plan worked for a while.
“We didn’t come out like we should have, and that certainly affected us at the beginning of the game,” said James about South’s game plan.
At the end of the first quarter, South led, 8-6, thanks to 3-pointers from Jason Salillari and Tyree Alexander. It stayed that way until James got going and found some room in open space. The junior finished the first half with 10 points, with four of his baskets coming on fast-break layups.
“We knew in the third quarter they would come out and throw a punch at us,” said Barber. “We respond really well. We could have packed it in.”
In the third quarter, James scored 10 more points on an assortments of putbacks and lay-ins. James finished with 20 points to lead all scorers, and Antwone Woolfolk had eight points. By the end of the third, it was 35-22 in favor of the home team.
in the fourth, South scored all 12 of its points on
“It’s the playoffs so now it’s all about what your strategy is. I think (South’s) game plan was to slow the game down and go possession by possession. I think if that team went through the season without COVID, it would be really good.” — Brush coach Chet Mason
3-pointers, including two from Will Hagwood, who led his team with 10 points. A Salillari 3-pointer pulled the Rebels to within seven at 41-34 but they couldn’t get closer.
South fouled late in the game to put Brush on the free-throw line, and that was an issue for the Arcs. They were 3 of 10 in the
fourth, and missed the front end of two 1-and-1 opportunities.
“Concentrate on free throws,” said Mason, when asked what would be a point of reference in practice. “Now they see the importance of concentrating on free throws because in the playoffs, it’s different. Everything is different.”