Yeah, this game parallels the Cavs Celtics opener. Complete with a high profile transfer between the two teams.Tickets for the Viking home opener against crosstown rival Euclid are on sale in the VASJ principal office during school hours. This is expected to be a sell out. There will be a ton of great games in NE Ohio this year but no opener better than this one.
Thanks for the update. I'd like to take this game in but the Arcs take on Bedford at home on the same night so I'll be there. This used to always be a backyard rivalry in football and I'm glad to see that it still takes place in hoops. It sounds like this game will be a real family affair on Friday night with the new Euclid coach being a connection to VASJ. Should be interesting to see the two compete.
Considering the fallout Babe and TJ had with eachother after the 2016 season. It will be interesting.
Don't waste time watching Bedford - they are going to be really bad. Starting all underclassmen, several freshman. Joe's will be sold out and rocking.
Well, I'm sold. I want to see a good game and I may not have an opportunity to get down to see Joe's the rest of the year. I'm looking forward to seeing a great game between the rivals. The last time I saw Joes play was against Beachwood last year and some lady came out of the stands yelling at one of the Beachwood coaches as he walked off the floor. That was pretty wild, but it was a good game. I'll hope for a good game this time without the other theatrics.
Fallout? What happened? I seem to remember from an old thread that VASJ had a bunch of players transfer this year. Were the transfers related to the fallout?
Lakeshore, I will take that as a compliment. I love highschool sports, and try to attend as many local football and basketball games as I can. I also follow social media posts, as well as online with the PD and News Herald. You can say I do my homework.
Bball216, I don't like what I am hearing about what happened. I took a peek at both VASJ and the Euclid coach's recent posts on social media to help gain some insight into this falling out. I was glad to see that there were not any posts dealing with any family disputes, at least from what I can see. I will say that I was impressed by the sheer volume of meaningful, almost philosophical, type posts from the VASJ coach. Although adults may take the posts as cheesy and fake, I would think that student athletes eat them up. Does the VASJ coach have another position within the school, or is he simply the coach? With the West Point pedigree, one would think that he would be a great role model for a student athlete.
CTown216, I see that Coach Babe Kwasniak's social media page had pictures from an event in 2015, some Hall of Fame dinner. Was he in charge of that event? It looked like Grbac, Fletcher, Howard and both Golics were there for a roundtable discussion and received some type of honor. What a great recruiting and fundraising advantage to have those guys as alumni! I am sure that event raised a bunch of money for the school.
Standing room only in Viking Village tonight to watch Joe's sweep all three games tonight. The game that was supposed to be close ended up being a 98-66 laugher as Jerry Higgins totally dominated every aspect of the game on his way to 33 points and a ton of hustle plays. Euclid has been chirping about this game ever since their new coach showed up with some VASJ transfers. Like always you can talk but eventually you have to back up your words with actions on the court and Euclid could not come close to doing that. Euclid looked surprisingly like Euclid - only with a different coach. Joe's did all their talking as usual - on the court. You just don't take the culture and tradition of St.Joes, put it in a backpack and transfer it to another school. Tonight even with a ton of young players Joe's looked like a team used to winning and Euclid looked like a team used to losing.
Jerry Higgins controlled the game from the opening tip and proved to everybody that Joe's is alive and well. Sure kids transferred out and by season end they might regret it because Joe's is a lot more talented than people thought they would be. The three freshman at VASJ are going to be really special and by seasons end Joe's is going to be a tough out. But this was the Higgins show. He scored 33 points and came up with every loose ball, every tipped pass and every hustle play. He showed off his improved jump shot that now allows him to not only kill you from the paint - bit from 3 as well. He set up his teammates and showed why he is the ultimate leader of men in NE Ohio. These kids really played well tonight and showed early on that Euclid was greatly overmatched. Joe's is going to be really good come playoff time and Euclid appears to be in for another long season.
Bball216-I was at the game last night and was impressed by VASJ. I have followed Higgins career and it appears that he is ready to become the next great point guard to come out of St. Joes. You also hit the nail on the head, Euclid won two games last year. While it was a great atmosphere, did any person with an ounce of high school basketball knowledge truly believe that Euclid would beat St. Joes on the Viking's Home Court? Of course not.The hope is this will quiet some of the so called Joe's supporters that do nothing but talk bad about the program. There was a lot of talking prior to this game from the Euclid side - funny not so much to say today. Joe's had a lot to deal with in the offseason with coaches moving on, graduation, transfers of keys players - yet they looked pretty damn good last night. Euclid on the other hand had the same amount of time to get ready for the game and had several kids returning - but you could not tell in their play. I think people expect because you hire a coach who played and coached at Joe's and had some Joe's players transfer in - that you will get Joe's results. It's not that easy. That Joe's program is developed over 40+ years to get to where it is. You cannot tak tradition and culture and just move it to another location and set up shop. Joe's is special and Euclid needs to develop their own winning culture and style - who knows they very well might. I think the Euclid fans need to step down from expecting the Panthers to be Joe's 2.0 - won't happen. The team won 2 games the last few years - change takes time.
Primarily because Euclid can't draw from all over Northeast Ohio with the added benefit of playing down come tournament time. So yes, excellent analysis.
Euclid is a town of 50,000 people with incredible youth programs (Panther Youth Football and Panther Hoops). Additionally they get 10 to 20 superb athletes in mid high school form that Rotsky brings in every year from other school districts. Unlike VASJ, tuition is FREE for residents. All you got to do is live in the city limits. If Euclid High's athletic and academic programs can't keep those quality kids in their system, it's their own fault. Nobody is feeling sorry for them but you. Hopefully TJ Kwas is one piece of the long term puzzle in turning that around.
I hope Euclid starts winning bigger in football.Starts to give Mentor a run for its money and one day soon looks like Pickerington Central did Sat. Night.I don't think they bring in that many kids from the outside though I could be wrong.Did Rotsky talk Jaylyn Harris away from the football program at VASJ? Or did he follow Malik Smith to Heights like a sheep?