SpringfieldNewsSun.com

It had been a long time since Greeneview and Wittenberg graduate Josh Leslie had led a team to the state's final four.

So when the former Catholic Central boys basketball coach who led the Irish to the state semifinals in 1996-97 finally got a team back to Columbus last weekend, he knew there was one thing he was going to do.

"It was a total blur," said Leslie, who last weekend led Ottawa-Glandorf to the Division III state boys hoops crown, of his first trip with Central. "It just went so fast. This time, I tried to take a breath and step back and enjoy it.

"I really wanted to cherish it because there are a lot of great coaches out there that have never made it."

Enjoy it he did, as his Titans overcame a 7-4 start to their season with two eight-game winning streaks — the last of which was all in the postseason.

"I'm still trying to recover," said the 1994 Witt grad, who went to the NCAA final four with the Tigers his senior year. "I'm very tired, but it is a good tired. I could do this for the next 30 years, no doubt."

Leslie found out early the best way to get a small-school team to state.

"Our schedule definitely prepares us," he said. "We play almost all D-I and D-II teams. Never in your wildest imagination do you think you could win the whole thing, though. It takes some luck and being hot at the right time."

It was the same formula that took the Irish to the final four in his first season as a head coach.

"That was a great group of guys," Leslie recalled. "They were not very big; our biggest guy was 6-foot-3, I think. And we had to play that Jason Collier schedule, with a lot of D-I teams."

Collier had graduated just before Leslie arrived.

Leslie says a title run is a fragile thing.

"People don't realize how hard it is to do in basketball," he said. "It just takes one night. If one team gets hot and you have a sub-par shooting night, you can get beat no matter how good you were (in the regular season).

The 36-year-old Leslie, who just finished his third season at Glandorf after six at St. Marys Memorial and two at Central, credits his roots for his success.

"Greeneview is an awesome basketball school, and I was lucky to have played for a guy like Bill Green," he said. "Then Wittenberg, having the privilege of playing for Coach (Dan) Hipsher and then Coach (Bill) Brown for one year.

"I'm very fortunate to have a nice list of people who molded me into who I am. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be where I am today."

That would be on the top of Ohio's prep basketball world.

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0364 or krowe@coxohio.com.