Several to be Recognized During OHSAA Boys State Basketball Tournament

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio High School Athletic Association will honor four Ohio greats during the 2024 Boys State Basketball Tournament Saturday, March 23, as part of its Circle of Champions recognition program. Headlining those being saluted is Jim Tressel, former head football coach at Ohio State and Youngstown State where he won five combined national championships. Also included in the recognition program are Dick LeBeau, a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame who played 14 years for the Lions and won two Super Bowls as the defensive coordinator for the Steelers; Caroline Mast Daugherty, who played on and coached teams at Warsaw River View that won OHSAA girls basketball state championships and was the all-time leading scorer at Ohio University, and Major League Baseball’s longest tenured umpire, Jerry Layne, a graduate of Marion Elgin High School. The Circle of Champions program recognizes individuals who had prominent roles in the history of Ohio athletics. The state tournament will be held at the University of Dayton Arena Friday through Sunday, March 22-24.

Tressel was born in Mentor and graduated from Berea High School. He played quarterback under his legendary coaching father, Lee, at Baldwin-Wallace College before embarking on a long and distinguished career as a football coach. After stops as an assistant at four universities, Tressel was the head coach at Youngstown State between 1986 and 2000, leading the Penguins to four NCAA Division I-AA national championships. Named the head coach at Ohio State in 2001, he led the Buckeyes to a 14-0 record and national championship in 2002. During his 10 years in Columbus, he also took OSU to two other national championship games, won or tied for six Big Ten titles and had a 9-1 record against Michigan. Among his numerous honors include selection to athletic halls of fame at Baldwin-Wallace, Youngstown State and Ohio State and induction into the College Football Hall of Fame. Following coaching, Tressel was executive vice president for student success at Akron before taking over as the president at Youngstown State in May of 2014 until his retirement two Februarys ago.

LeBeau is a native of London, Ohio, where he was a basketball and football standout. He was on the 1957 Ohio State National Championship football team, playing both halfback and cornerback, and is a member of the OSU Athletic Hall of Fame. He then embarked on a prestigious 59-year career in the NFL, playing 14 years with the Detroit Lions and then coaching for 45 years with seven different franchises that included a two-year stint as head coach of the Bengals. While playing cornerback for the Lions, LeBeau was a three-time Pro Bowl selection, amassed 62 interceptions and is a member of the Lions’ all-time team. He is considered to be one of the greatest defensive coordinators of all time. While coordinating the Steelers’ defense, LeBeau helped the team win Super Bowls during the 2005 and 2008 seasons, and he was part of two other Steelers’ Super Bowl teams and two with the Bengals. He last coached with the Titans in 2017. Dick was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a player in 2010.

Daugherty was a two-time first team all-Ohio selection who led Warsaw River View to the 1982 OHSAA Girls Class AA state basketball championship, scoring 28 points in the semifinals and 26 in the finals. She went on to an outstanding career at Ohio University, where she was a three-time Mid-American Conference player-of-the-year and led the 1986 team to 26-3 record, the MAC championship and an NCAA tournament bid. Daugherty was the Bobcats’ all-time leading scorer for both women and men for nearly 40 years with nearly 2,500 points, was voted the MAC’s player-of-the-decade in women’s basketball and is a member of the MAC and Ohio U. athletic halls of fame and the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame. Besides raising four accomplished children with her husband, Bill, she coached River View for six seasons, compiling a record of 132-16 between 2004 and 2009 and winning two state championships with three appearances in the state tournament.

Layne is the longest-serving active Major League Baseball umpire, first becoming a member of the Major League staff in 1989. He was the crew chief for the 2011 World Series and the 2017 National League Division Series. He also worked the 2005 World Series; four All-Star Games, and numerous other playoff games. Layne was behind the plate for Fernando Valenzuela’s no-hitter in 1990 and worked the plate when Barry Bonds hit his 71st homer in 2001. Before joining the Majors Leagues, he umpired in four different minor leagues, and he was also an instructor at MLB’s inaugural umpire camps and was a long-time instructor at the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School. Layne currently lives in Florida.

Other awards will be presented during various times at this year’s boys state tournament. The honorees are as follows:

• The OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Awards are presented annually to two people for their contributions to the sport of basketball or interscholastic athletics.The 2024 winners were selected from the OHSAA Southeast and Southwest Districts, respectively, and are Harold “Bud” Sayre and Ed Zink. Sayre is a retired school administrator, teacher and coach. He first taught and coached at his alma mater, Portsmouth West High School, before moving to assistant principal and athletic administrator. He stayed in the latter role for just a year before becoming the school’s principal. In 1993, ­he became the superintendent of the Union-Scioto School District in Chillicothe and retired in 1999 as the superintendent of the Eastern Local School District in Pike County. He served on the OHSAA’s Southeast District Athletic Board for 12 years and served two years on the OHSAA Board of Directors. Zink is the winningest girls high school basketball coach in Ohio. While at his alma mater, Beavercreek High School, for 46 years, he led the team to OHSAA Division I state championships in 1995, 2001 and 2003 and compiled a record of 810-277 before retiring following the 2020-21 season. Among his many honors include induction into the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame; he won the state coaches association Paul Walker Award, and his three Beavercreek teams that combined for an 83-1 record were inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame.

• The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) affords each state the opportunity to annually honor an individual for their outstanding contributions to interscholastic athletics. During the state tournament, the OHSAA will recognize 2024 state service award winner Dr. Randy Wroble. Dr. Wroble was co-founder of OhioHealth Sports Medicine and has been an orthopedic surgeon in Columbus and the central Ohio area since 1992 with a specialty in sports medicine. During that time, he has served 34 years as the medical director at the OHSAA’s State Wrestling tournament, and he also was chair of the OHSAA Joint Advisory Committee on Sports Medicine from 2002 through this past October.

• The 2024 OHSAA Coaches Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Awards for boys basketball will be presented toSteve Mehalik, who just completed his 17^th year overall as a head coach at Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School, where he has won over 265 games and led this year’s team to the Suburban League-National Division championship. His 2021-22 and 2022-23 teams combined for a 45-6 record and won back-to-back Suburban League-National championships with a combined 23-1 league record.

• For the first time, the OHSAA will recognize award winners from the Ohio Association of Secondary School Administrators (OASSA) and the Buckeye Association of School Administrators (BASA). Recognized will be OASSA’s 2023-24 Principal-of-the-Year,Bob Kniselyfrom Perry Middle School in Lake County, and the OASSA’s 2023-24 Assistant Principal-of-the-Year is Kristen Clausen from Hilliard Davidson High School. Also being recognized will be BASA’s 2023-24 Superintendent-of-the-Year Joseph Spiccia from the Wickliffe School District.

• Three Ohio Athletic Trainers Association (OATA) honorees will be recognized during the tournament.The two OATA athletic trainers-of-the-year are Craig Lindsey, who is in his 29^th year as the head athletic trainer at Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati, and Lauren Orth, an outreach athletic trainer for OhioHealth Sports Medicine since 2009 who has been the head athletic trainer at Westerville South High School since 2016. A 2024 OATA Hall of Fame honoree who will be recognized is Laura Rubesich, who was a long-time athletic trainer in the Youngstown-Warren area between 1979 and 2003 that included serving as the athletic trainer for the Warren City Schools for nine years.

• Two 2024 inductees into the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Hall of Fame to be recognized, including one posthumously.The late Chuck Ridenour was a 40-year veteran of the Shelby Daily Globe and was loved by the Shelby community for his tireless dedication to local sports coverage. Ridenour devoted his life to promoting kids at every level and telling their stories through sports. The other honoree is Rick Cassano from Southwest Ohio Sports Daily. Rick started covering sports for his local newspaper more than 40 years ago. He worked for 14 months at the Watertown Daily Times in New York, then returned home to work for the Hamilton Journal News in 1987, spending 32 years there before founding the Southwest Ohio Sports Daily website in 2019 that covers high school sports in Butler and Warren counties.

• The Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) will recognize several coaches who have hit certain milestones in victories and/or consecutive years in the profession and several service award winners. Among the OHSBCA honorees are 2024 John Wooden Legacy Award boys winnerJoe Petrocelli, former longtime coach at Kettering Archbishop Alter High School; Morgan Wootten Lifetime Achievement Award boys winner Dick Kortokrax, who retired in 2016 as the winningest coach in Ohio with 890 who led Kalida to the 1981 state championship, and Ed Calo, head boys coach at Westerville South High School, who was the Ohio nominee as the National Federation of State High School Association’s boys coach-of-the-year and earned the NFHS Section 2 coach-of-the-year.

• During last week’s OHSAA Girls State Basketball Tournament, recognized were the following:

—      The 2024 OHSAA Coaches Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Awards for girls basketball was presented to Walt DeShields, who just completed his 19^th year as a head coach at West Branch High School in Beloit, where his teams have over 300 wins.

—      2024 Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) Paul Walker Award winner Andy Booth, head girls coach at Wadsworth High School for the past 18 years who has won over 350 games, including the 2016 OHSAA Division I Girls State Championship.

—      Another OHSBCA honoree was Mary Jo Huisman, who was both the 2024 John Wooden Legacy Award girls winner and the Morgan Wootten Lifetime Achievement Award girls winner. Huisman is from Talawanda High School in Oxford and just finished her 52^nd year as a head coach. She spent most of her career at Mother of Mercy High School in Cincinnati and currently has over 750 career wins.

—      Also recognized was the Ohio nominee as the National Federation of State High School Association’s girls coach-of-the-year Jack Purtell, retired from coaching the girls program at Reynoldsburg High School prior to this season who has 526 career wins, including the Division I State Championship in 2022.

Recognitions this weekend will take place as follows:

Saturday, March 23, 10:45 Game, Halftime: Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) Recognitions

Saturday, March 23, 2:00 Game, End of 1^st Quarter: OHSAA State Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame Recognitions (Craig Lindsey, Lauren Orth and

      Laura Rubesich)

Saturday, March 23, 2:00 Game, Halftime: OHSBCA Recognitions (Joe Petrocelli, Dick Kortokrax and Ed Calo)

Saturday, March 23, 5:15 Game, End of 1^st Quarter: OHSAA Coaches Sportsmanship Award (Steve Mehalik)

Saturday, March 23, 5:15 Game, Halftime: Circle of Champions (Jim Tressel, Dick LeBeau, Caroline Mast Daugherty and Jerry Layne)

Sunday, March 24, 10:45 Game, 2^nd Quarter Media Timeout: NFHS Ohio Service Award (Dr. Randy Wroble)

Sunday, March 24, 2:00 Game, 2^nd Quarter Media Timeout: OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Award (Harold “Bud” Sayre)

Sunday, March 24, 2:00 Game, Halftime: OHSAA Principals-of-the-Year and Superintendent of the Year Recognitions: (Bob Knisely, Kristin

      Clausen and Joseph Spiccia)

Sunday, March 24, 5:15 Game, 2^nd Quarter Media Timeout: OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Award (Ed Zink)

Sunday, March 24, 5:15 Game, Halftime: Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame Recognition (the late Chuck Ridenour and

      Rick Cassano)

Tickets for the 2024 OHSAA Boys State Basketball Tournament remain available and can be purchased by going to https://www.ohsaa.org/tickets.

OHSAA Official Press Release