Larry Ham and Mark Baker also took turns guiding the Rams until Rocky Rockhold took over. For another impressive coaching link, Wayne coach Travis Trice was an assistant to Thornton before leaving and turning the then-under-producing Warriors into another Southwest District and state power. Ham, also previously Springfield’s coach, is now a Wildcats assistant.
Trotwood certainly had established court success prior to that under the late Kent Bobo and Jim Staley, who went on to greater success at Centerville.
Springfield has experienced the kind of renewed community enthusiasm for boys basketball that never could have been imagined when South grad Isaiah Carson inherited the program four seasons ago. At the time, Springfield hardly resembled the powerhouse teams that Don Henderson (North) and Wayne Wiseman (South) consistently produced during most of a 30-year run that began in the early 1970s.
Look at them now.
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Springfield (18-2) will host Trotwood (19-2) on Friday in what essentially is an area championship. Both teams won their respective Greater Western Ohio Conference divisions. Both were seeded No. 1 in the upcoming sectional tournaments, Springfield in D-I and Trotwood in D-II. Both are ranked among the top 10 in the state.
They are loaded with standouts. Springfield’s unquestioned leader is senior Danny Davis (18.8 points, 6.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists). The Wildcats also feature Michael McKay (15.5 points) and Leonard Taylor (12.1). Trotwood answers with Torrey Patton (20.7 points), Myles Belyeu (18.3), Amari Davis (15.9) and Amir Foster (13.1).
Trotwood is averaging 91 points and has hit triple digits five times. One hundred points might not be enough to win this game.
"No. 10, he means everything to this program," Carson said of Davis, who recently signed to play football (wide receiver) at Wisconsin. "We're not where we're at as a program without him. We've been in the struggle and the wrong side of things but here we are, his senior year."
If you haven’t already secured a ticket, forgot about it. None will be sold at the door for this sellout. This will be as close to a North/South regular-season showdown as ever packed Wittenberg University’s HPER Center back in the day.
• Sidney (16-5, 12-2), Trotwood (19-2, 13-1), Springfield (18-2, 10-1) and Northmont (17-4, 8-2) all won GWOC divisional boys titles. Alter (18-3, 8-1) can clinch an outright Greater Catholic League Co-Ed North title by defeating Chaminade Julienne (12-9, 7-2) at Fairmont’s Trent Arena on Friday.
Franklin (17-4, 10-1) has won an outright Southwestern Buckeye League Southwestern title. Carlisle (16-5, 10-1) and Preble Shawnee (15-6, 10-1) likely will share the SWBL Buckeye title.
Bellefontaine (16-4, 11-1) won the Central Buckeye Conference Kenton title. Northwestern (13-7, 9-3) must beat Indian Lake (12-8, 8-4) on Friday to secure an outright CBC Mad River title.
Other outright conference winners are Dunbar (19-3, 10-0) in the Dayton City League, Russia (15-4, 10-1) in the Shelby County League, Versailles (19-1, 8-0) in the Midwest Athletic Conference and Bethel (18-3, 11-0) in the Cross County Conference.
• Franklin grad and Duke sophomore Luke Kennard is destined to become the area’s second lottery pick since the NBA started awarding teams that missed the playoffs in 1985. The only question is which year. Kennard (19.8 points), an NCAA player of the year candidate, has been mentioned as high as the 14th pick should he opt for the draft after this season.
The only other area player who has been an NBA lottery pick was Wright State center Vitaly Potapenko in 1996. He was chosen by Washington with the No. 12 pick, then immediately traded to Cleveland. Potapenko certainly didn’t prep here, but we’ll claim him as one of ours.
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