Memorable moments from 20 years of sports coverage
During the past 20 years of covering sports in Holmes County and beyond, I have had several memorable moments, ranging from the State championships in baseball, basketball and wrestling, to experiences beyond our boundaries, such as back in 1997, when I had the good fortune of covering the Cleveland Indians in the World Series.I have seen many great athletes playing in several different sports, and I thought I would try and comprise a few lists of the most memorable moments and people I have had the pleasure, as well as the misfortune, of covering.
Top 5 basketball games
1. The obvious choice would be Hiland winning the 1992 State championship, but that game actually finished third. They never would have won the State title without pulling off a miraculous 64-62 comeback win over Lima Central Catholic. Jr. Raber getting fouled on a 3-point desperation shot as time expired, and then deftly draining the resulting three free throws to secure the win was by far the most exhilarating basketball experience I can recall.
2. Hiland’s afternoon shoot-out 98-93 win against Bishop Rosecrans for the district title at Meadowbrook in a game that saw both teams light up the scoreboard, thanks to an incredible free throw shooting display by the Hawks in the fourth quarter (20-of-20), especially Joe Miller, who stroked 13 straight from the charity stripe to secure the victory for the Hawks.
3. The 74-71 State championship win over Gilmour Academy was almost anti-climactic after the semifinal thriller, but the fact that the Hawks nailed down the first and only State championship in school history was most memorable.
4. The Lady Hawks’ 44-37 State championship victory over Africentric in 2008 was a special win to witness, because it was a game Hiland was not supposed to win, yet thanks to a team that was so well prepared, it seemed to know what the Nubians were going to do before they did it. A balanced attack by Jena Stutzman led Hiland to its fourth championship of the decade, and third in the past four years.
5. Both games of the 1993 girls Division II State finals, in which the twins Martin (Jodie and Julie) dominated Orrville and their young coach Scott Bardall as West Holmes won the semifinal 51-27, before falling to Urbana in the finals 50-48, giving legendary coach of the Lady Knights, Jack Van Reeth, his first taste of defeat in the State tournament.
While it seems the basketball list was dominated by Hiland, the football list will obviously be ruled by West Holmes, since the Hawks don’t field a gridiron gang. Here are my top five football games:
Top 5 football games
1. Deke Miller engineered a comeback win over Coshocton, driving the Knights 90-some yards to beat the Redskins 21-20 in 1992. Miller to Bill Wolfe was the deadly combination that year that led the Knights to the playoffs and an 8-4 record.
2. The two-overtime, 28-27 triumph over Coshocton in 1999, where Redskins’ coach Wade Lucas opted to try for two and the win instead of trying for the tie, and the defense of the Knights denied the PAT for the win. It was a great win for West Holmes, which wound up 11-1 and enjoyed another trip to the playoffs.
3. The 2001 Knights struggled to a 4-6 record that year, but West Holmes packed the stands for the fourth game of the year against St. Vincent-St. Mary and the stellar wide receiver of the Irish, Lebron James. The future NBA star displayed incredible athletic skills as poor Nick Akins and other members of the Knights’ secondary had a hard time trying to defend James, who caught about 10 passes for more than 100 yards in a 27-7 romp over West Holmes. I’ll never forget all the kids waiting outside the visitors locker room to get an autograph of the chosen one.
4. There wasn’t a single game in the 2000 season that wasn’t a joy to watch, as Rod Taylor displayed his incredible gifts as a running back, leading the Knights to an 11-2 record and another playoff run. Taylor and Nolan Mackey were a devastating one-two punch, both usually watching most of the games from the sidelines in the second half as West Holmes was well ahead of its opponents at the half. The dynamic duo each ran for more than 1,000 yards. Bob Maltarich was also chosen to coach the Big 33 Ohio-Pennsylvania All-Star Classic that year.
5. One of the few nice things I’ll ever say about the Browns was the game I covered when the team returned to Cleveland in 1999 after Art Modell stole the team away to Baltimore and a hapless group of misfits dressed in orange and brown took the field for a game with Cincinnati. The Clowns lost 18-17, but the game culminated an incredible weekend for me, which included a high school game on Friday night, and Ohio State game on Saturday and the Browns on Sunday afternoon. Cleveland finished that first year back 2-14, a foreshadowing of things to come.
Top 5 players
1. Colt Sponseller was the nicest kid I ever had the pleasure of watching as a reporter. He was soft-spoken, almost humble, but he was the hardest-working, best-prepared athlete I’ve seen in my 20 years on the job. And that hard work paid off in three State championships, all of which I had the pleasure of covering.
2. Kevin Maltarich was another hard-working athlete, who never let on whether he won or lost. Much like his father, he was always on an even keel, making it hard to tell if he won or lost. He was destined to be a good coach, and he has proven that by his success at Norwayne and his foray into the Ohio Cardinal Conference as coach of the Madison Rams.
3. Kevin Yoder was a top-quality baseball player for Hiland, and that passion carried over into coaching. He has enjoyed success at every stop he’s made along the coaching trail, including Hiland, Coshocton and Tri-Valley. It must be something to do with the first name.
4. Lindsey Piar was another great athlete who excelled at whatever she did, be it basketball, volleyball, track or softball. I’ll never forget playing on the same softball team as she, and fretting over the fact that she might lap me on the bases. I also freaked out when I did an FFA story on Piar and her cockroach collection. I was used to the way most women I had known reacted to bugs, yet there she was handling these wretched little creatures.
5. Of the thousands of kids I’ve covered and had the good fortune of watching play, I never derived so much joy as watching my son, Brendan Lynch, play Little League baseball. He was one of those kids who exuded sheer joy on the field, and when he played, he made it look so easy. It helped that he was my son and watching him was far from a chore. But when he played, he played with passion, which made his old man proud and his opponents shudder.
Not all of my job has been roses and sunshine. There have been a few games (and seasons for that matter) where I would have rather been anywhere but stuck watching games, like the year I spent covering sports in Coshocton for the Tribune, where every major team at Coshocton, River View and Ridgewood ranked among the worst I ever saw. So, here are my five worst sports memories.
1. During the 1992-93 basketball season, I was working in Coshocton covering the Redskins and their first-year coach Kirk McMahon. After watching his team get drilled by Cambridge and West Holmes by 40-plus points on consecutive nights, the coach asked me after the game if I was going to write a more positive story. What was I supposed to say? The team and its coach positively stunk! I wrote a scathing editorial that did not endear me to the Coshocton coach and his fan.
2. In 1997, Matt Lawhead’s third and final season as coach of the Knights’ basketball team, West Holmes was in the midst of an 0-21 season. I wrote about Lawhead getting hit with a technical that ultimately cost his team the game and he said to me later, “You never would have wrote about Perry Reese getting a technical,” to which I replied, he had no right mentioning himself in the same sentence as Coach Reese.
3. Another Coshocton experience was when coaches and fans came out of the stands at a football game against Steubenville Catholic at Stewart Field during a fight on the field. Coshocton’s coach (Lucas) condoned their actions, which inspired me to write an article about sportsmanship, which did not endear me to that coach either. He held a grudge, too, because a few years later, when I was writing as a freelancer for the Tribune, I went up to Coach Lucas for a comment after the Knights beat them 40-7, and he said to me, “I have nothing to say to the media, especially you.”
4. I had seen Perry Reese deliver plenty of ‘in-your-face’ messages to his players during his coaching days at Hiland, and I never thought I’d be on the receiving end of one of his tirades, but I was after a column I wrote about the expectations of an upcoming season. He lambasted me as I stood helpless on the floor in the old Hawks Nest during a girls IVC game. You never want to see someone coming at you carrying the newspaper folded open to your article, but that was the case as Coach came at me with his game face on during a break in a Lady Hawks game. He ranted and raved for a few minutes before abruptly turning around and leaving me to stand alone in my embarrassment. Once I got a chance to explain where my information came from and the sources I used for the article I wrote, he apologized, but not in front of a gym full of people, like the diatribe he delivered.
5. At a Knights tournament baseball game at River View a few years back, then-JV coach Ben Holt was in the West Holmes dugout criticizing a blown call by an umpire. Holt was heated in his one-way discussion with the umpire, and his ranting went on for more than an inning. River View’s first base coach looked into the West Holmes dugout and told him to give it a rest, and in front of all the kids and fans, he called out the coach, threatening to “kick his a-- right there.” It was definitely the low point in his coaching career at WHHS, which ended after this past baseball season.