D IV Final: Harvest Prep 45 Berlin Hiland 41

[Steely Dan]

Recruiterville at its best. The better recruiter was Harvest Prep. 'Nuff said.

[FANOSPORTS]

Yep, I think Waterford was the best "true" (IMO) DIV school out there this year but we'll never know for sure as they let this kind of crap continue and it's getting worse every year. Associate Commissioner Henry Zaborniak gave them the State Championship trophy and couldn't even pronounce their school name fully in the introduction beforehand even though they have cue cards to read from. Very few people go to the games anymore and it's getting even worse as all these Prep, parochial and private schools only bring the parents, grandparents and another few supporter's to watch them play. These aren't communities as I know them and it's a shame. I do know one thing, the OHSAA is losing a lot of money on all sports as far as spectator involvement dollars are concerned with the casual fans such as myself included, especially at the district levels and above as less and less public schools are even playing in State title games anymore. Well, I guess I've ranted enough but for the first time in 20 years, I'm not taking in the boy's finals next week and will probably skip the football finals next year for the reason's stated above. I will pay my cable bill and sit at home like a lot of others have started doing over the past few years and let the OHSAA rake in their dollars from ONN, STO or whoever carries the games.

[Steely Dan]

FOS - My friend, I couldn't have said it any better myself. There is no purity in high school sports anymore, however, it was great to see Liberty Benton win today. All is not lost, yet.

[javon white]

There is no purity in high school sports anymore and that is daggone downright sad. FOS said what many people think very, very well.

[oaks one]

Liberty Benton's center transferred in her junior year, does that now make them not pure?

[FANOSPORTS]

Liberty Benton's center transferred in her junior year, does that now make them not pure?

Nothing against Oak Hill but for decades they were not very competitive in most sports and then all of a sudden here in the last decade, POW !!!!! I guess they've got a lot of new industry down there in the Oak Hill area that created jobs for lots of folks with lots of kids, N-O-T . The old pot and the kettle story.....

[oaks one]

It was a rhetorical; somewhat sarcastic based question, not a statement against Liberty Benton, or calling old pots and kettles
anything.

[Steely Dan]

It was a rhetorical; somewhat sarcastic based question, not a statement against Liberty Benton, or calling old pots and kettles
anything.

Well, I guess I'm one who does not understand the motive behind your post. So, just what was it? Seems like you tried to cover your arse with your response, so that all possible motives were dismissed.........

[slamdunk]

I wrote on the D II thread about this game, but thought I would respond a little more on here.

I thought this was the best game of the 3 games I stayed and watched. Very well played and coached game. Neither team shot the ball well, but that had a lot to do with the defense of both teams. Neither defense was real flashy or aggressive although they did press. But, both defenses were very disciplined and they played their roles well (sign of a very well coached team). Hiland was probably the best fundamental defensive team I had seen. We was talking to a group of folks from Ontario school (hope that is right), any way, they said they would love to show the tape of Hiland playing defense to their team because they were so good at playing their role and their footwork on defense was fantastic. I totally agree.

Even though, Hiland was the best defensively, it came down to the end and the TO's and panic that Hiland showed, very uncharacteristic for Hiland. Even still, it was a extremely fun game to watch and made the trip well worth it. Great game by both teams in this game!

On a side note: Even though, Harvest Prep didn't have a huge crowd (crowd was mainly made up of kids, looked like they brought majority of their school with them), they were very loud and got into the game more than any crowd I have seen. You could just see they were into every pass, dribble, and shot. We sat by some of their fans and the shear joy they showed when they won was what the state tournament (and high school basketball for that matter) is all about. Congrats to Harvest Prep on a well played game and congrats to their fans for the energy they put into the game. It made it a fun final game for me to watch.

[slamdunk]

By the way:

Sorry in advance to the Harvest Prep coach for bringing this up, BUT this game also had the funniest moment of the state tournament too. (In my opinion of course) I think it should make ESPN's Not Top 10!

Toward the end of the game, Harvest Prep has the ball. They are bringing it up the floor with some pressure and the HP coach is calling timeout. Just as the official is blowing the whistle to signal timeout, the girl with the ball throws the ball across court to a team mate that is no longer paying attention because she hears the timeout. The ball sails on her and drills the HP coach in the head, HARD!!! It was hard enough that the ball almost flew in the air back across the entire court. I don't know how the coach was with it enough to coach them during the timeout. He and the official closest to him had a good laugh about it after the fact.

[Johnny_Marzetti]

Three of Harvest Preps top 6 were at Grove City last year. Another was at Canal. Grove City initially cancelled extracurriculars when the levy failed. Not saying it's luck they all ended up at the same school, just offering some other info.

As for Hiland, those girls are all homegrown. I think Hilary Weaver might have started out at West Holmes once upon a time, but that's it. No recruiting. Just a good program. Those girls eat and breathe basketball in Berlin. The three girls people want to point to as being recruited were adopted 13 or so years ago. They've grown up in the district.

[DYNAM0]

The state wont stop recruiting cause they want teams like this in the finals. Brings in more money for them that way.

[slamdunk]

The state wont stop recruiting cause they want teams like this in the finals. Brings in more money for them that way.

I disagree! Most of the "recruiting" that takes place is being done by private schools and 99% of the time the private schools bring a TERRIBLE crowd with them to the state tournament. So the state is probably losing money when they have games like the Div. II game that was so poorly attended.