For the Trojans program, it was the culmination of years of hard work and near-misses.
The Trojans had advanced to the state tournament in 1988, falling to Kalida 62-51 in the state final. They returned the following year and again lost to eventual state champion Kalida, this time in a state semifinal.
They lost to Middletown Fenwick in the D-IV sweet sixteen in both 1990 and 1991.
They lost to Danville in the regional final in both 1993 and 1994. A year later, the Trojans fell to eventual state champion Jackson Center in a regional final.
In 1996, they beat Fenwick and Fayetteville to advance to the state tournament. They beat Ottoville 52-49 before their state final triumph against Rosecrans.
“It’s like you’re just here watching it,” Stephanie Stewart told the News-Sun after the game. “I’ll probably be lying in bed tonight and it will just hit me. I just can’t describe the feeling right now. It just hasn’t sunk in yet.”
The Trojans squad was led by two seniors, a standout junior and a talented freshman class.
Senior forwards Natalie Cassell and JeriAnn Goodbar were “completely unselfish and led by example,” Martin said.
“They were just wonderful, wonderful leaders in a quiet sort of way. And then we had an incredible freshman class that was too young to understand how significant it was what we were doing. They just loved playing basketball. And it was just a great, great combination.”
Junior guards Stephanie Stewart and Julie Foster started in the backcourt. Martin’s daughter, Amy, was a sophomore post. Freshman posts Leah Donaldson and Courtney Black, along with guards Stephanie Campbell and Tiffany Stewart, also saw action at the state tournament.
“(The freshmen) just were young and just played,” Martin said. “And they were so competitive that they were driven to succeed individually, which just raised the level of play for everybody.”
The Trojans beat Rosecrans (25-2) behind 25 points from Donaldson and 14 each from Stephanie Stewart, Amy Martin and Campbell. They finished the season 27-1.
Rosecrans was led by Division IV player of the year Kwame Clark — who also played tailback on the Bishops football team — with 23 points, while Amy Tatman had 21 and twin sister Abby Tatman added 12.
The Trojans used an atypical defensive strategy to stifle Rosecrans.
Early in his career, Martin pressed and played a 1-3-1 zone, but after back-to-back appearances at the state tournament in 1988 and 1989, they decided they needed to play more man-to-man defense — and that’s what they did all of 1996, he said.
Heading into the state final against Rosecrans, Martin was concerned about his team’s ability to guard their post players — Clark and the Tatman twins.
After their state semifinal victory, the Trojans practiced at Capital University and installed what Martin described as a “fifth grade 2-3 zone.”
“We played it the entire game and every time they made a basket, I’d lean over to (Trojans assistant coach Jim ‘Bodie’ Lightle) and say, ‘Do we need to get out of this? Do we need to get out of this?’”
“He’d say ‘Stay in it. Stay in it.’”
“We played a 2-3 zone every possession that game, and that’s the only possessions of a 2-3 zone we played the entire year and it worked well.
“We were able to make some shots and the rest is history.”
With a young roster returning, the Trojans had high hopes to win another state title.
The following year, the Trojans played Fort Loramie in a D-IV regional final. In a tie ball game, Stephanie Stewart — the D-IV co-Player of the Year as a senior in 1997 — had her legs knocked out from under her and fell hard to the ground, Martin said. They played the rest of the fourth quarter and an overtime period without her, falling 48-45.
“You always wonder what would have happened without that injury,” Martin said.
In 1999, led by coach Brett Bower, Southeastern finished as state runner-up, falling to Bascom Hopewell Loudon — led by DiDi Reynolds who later starred at Ohio State — 61-51. They would play in the state tournament again in 2002, the last Clark County girls team to advance to the Final Four.
30 years later that 1996 feeling still hasn’t gone away, Martin said.
The Trojans are forever state champions.
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