That is a great point about Martin. I have always thought in this league, if you have a big like that, not many teams will be able to stop you down low.
I remember watching Howard during his time at GCC. Great rebounder, he put up a 48 pt and 20 something rebound performance his senior year. I saw he is now on the staff at GCC. That is a great move by Timlin to bring him back around his young team.
Great recap by Snowman. That is how I see it playing out. The biggest question is how high up do you go with GCC and FCA. Some tough losses to division teams but GCC has taken the MOCAL to the shed. Talking to a parent, they scrimmaged Shekinah and said it wasn't close with GCC doing whatever they wanted.
I look at some of the Cardinal scores and what the lower Cardinal teams have done to the MOCAL teams, is the gap really that big between the two? Or is this just a bad year for the MOCAL?
Howard went on to play at Otterbein, I believe. Yeah -- I remember that game you're referring to. It was against Tree of Life. I didn't go to the game but I remember it well because that was an insane stat-line. Our center that year, "Goggles" and all 6'1" of him, really enjoyed getting to play against him and talk to him off-the-court & diamond.
Michael's contemporaries in basketball and baseball at FC, the Irish senior class ('14), as a whole held a
tremendous amount of respect to him as a competitor and as a peer for that matter. The kids would refer to him, in a positive light, in the third-person as "D-Mike" as a reference to then-NBA superstar Dwight Howard. Play on his name, homage to his heart and skill on the court & diamond. Getting that level of respect as a competitor and as a peer from the FC senior class says a lot, because that group was super-jagged having played three years against Berne Union, Grandview, Licking Heights (Ronnie Dawson, who went on to be a 2nd round pick by the Houston Astros), Liberty Union and West Jefferson with lots of, uh, "spirited" competition. "Spirited", as in lots of high-energy ball with loads of jawing back-and-forth on the court, diamond and from dugout-to-dugout. Had a year or two in that spell where the league three-way split thanks to that class.
So, when GH+LH+LU+WJ leave after the spring of '13 these kids lost most of their best rivalries they cherished.
In comes GCC, who they basically took to the woodshed the year before in non-league in Boys Hoops (that game started 30-3 in favor of FC) and those FC kids are thinking "well these new guys aren't very good." First game in the basketball series, at FC, Irish win a pretty energetic game by a decently comfortable margin. Howard had a great game. Second game that year? Timlin's squad just dribbles FC out of the Eagles' Nest. Dominated. Thrashed. Baseball comes around and FC gets a decent win (6-0) the first time around on Hoover Road. The return game was going to decide league championship, as it were last game in the entire Cardinal. FC was in the drivers' seat at 8-1 (loss to Berne), BU was 8-2 (loss to FC and GCC) and GCC was 7-2 (loss to BU and FC.) Win = outright; loss = 3-way split. Howard smacks one out, with two on, about 350' in deep-left. 5-1 GCC, bottom 6, Josh Evans (FC) answers back with his own 3-run shot. 5-4 going into b7, with R.I.S.P., two outs and J.E. takes the only called-strike in his career at the plate to end the game. Pure
heartbreak. After, Michael and Tyler Elgin (think that's his name, the shorter kid who played both sports) picked him up and were very genteel in their celebration. To that entire senior class, that game was probably the most meaningful and soul-building experience they got to have in sports. Losing that one put a lot of things into perspective. They had just experienced losing a very well-respected and successful baseball coach to a firing they didn't understand in the off-season, and the basketball players had
five different coaches in
four years with the hired basketball head coach for their senior season generating a lot of problems that was hurting the kids. And football was just getting really nowhere with a 25-man roster playing 70/80-man depth charts as often as they were pre-2013 Cardinal and in the non-league schedule for the inaugural "new Cardinal" 2013 season.
Those kids badly wanted to win in everything they could, for pride and for the love of their school, and part of the problem was facing undue obstacles beyond the competition. Playing Howard, Elgin, Aulick, Whitaker and company in the various sports that year brought things full circle for them. Those Eagles were a needed salve to the spirit of competition and what it means to play. They probably won't remember anyone in particular aside from Michael (sorry guys!), but they will say that playing GCC that year was one of the most formative experiences in their memory.
Thanks for taking the time to read all of that^. I'm glad to read he's on the staff at GCC. He'll be great for them.
