Western Buckeye League 21-22

ramdog22

Active member
Who are your favorites too compete for the league title? I will go with OG and St. Mary's. Ottawa is always in the mix and St. Mary's brings back alot, alot of size as well. Defiance should be in the mix, they should start all juniors this season. I think Shawnee lost just to much to be a factor in the league race.
 
 
Who are your favorites too compete for the league title? I will go with OG and St. Mary's. Ottawa is always in the mix and St. Mary's brings back alot, alot of size as well. Defiance should be in the mix, they should start all juniors this season. I think Shawnee lost just to much to be a factor in the league race.
Long time reader of the website, first time creating an account. Love everything about Northwest Ohio high school sports. Rich in tradition. I say OG, St. Marys, and Shawnee are the top 3 in the league. Parks is a load to handle, but they lost a lot of guard play and will have to replace two key scorers. OG will be OG and a tough out for anyone. I think people are sleeping on Shawnee. They return the best PG in the WBL, and they return who I believe is the most athletic player in the league. He will take on the Mangas role of running in transition and be Shawnee's primary scorer. I think Shawnee will see how important Tyson Elwer was and lose some rim protection. But Shawnee returns a lot of guys who played key minutes on a state team last year.
 
Kenton will have an entire new style and have looked really good in their scrimmages. They will surprise a lot of people with their new coach. A good upswing from a down football season.
 
Agree that SM, OG, and Defiance should be top 3. Not sure what SM has around him, but they were good last year and no one else has an answer for 6'10". OG is OG, they'll always be there. Defiance returns a bunch from a 15-9 (6-3) team so no reason to think they won't be right back in the mix.

I'm just glad to get to go to games again.
 
How much will this football run affect the OG basketball team? Looks like teams that get them early may be lucky, might be able to pull off an upset or two.
 
How much will this football run affect the OG basketball team? Looks like teams that get them early may be lucky, might be able to pull off an upset or two.
Fortunately all the big league games (St Marys, Shawnee, Findlay, Lima Senior, Rossford, Defiance) are all after the first of the year. The football run will affect them I'm sure, but they should be good to go by the time those games roll around
 
Well after getting to watch 3 WBL teams and LCC play in the tip off tournament we got a little taste of what this league may look like.

LCC- not a wbl team but plays several wbl opponents. This team played Shawnee tough in the championship game. Had a 5 point lead in the 4th quarter, all while not having their true point guard on the floor, Oh, and having only two practices. This team will win a lot of games. Good guard play that can shoot with the best of them.

Bath- has to be the most disappointing team in the tournament. They look like they will be a middle of the road WBL team at best. No guard play whatsoever. Doesnt look like they have anyone who can create their own shot. It looked like most of their offense just came from chucking up threes. They have decent size but dont score enough easy points at the rim. I think they hover around .500 all year but struggle to score, and win games with size, defense, and rebounding.

Elida - the team that surprised me the most in the tournament. You can tell Tabler has brought over the intense, in your face, run in transition type of team that we saw at Perry. This team will go through alot of growing pains this year but will be competitive in more games than what people will think. They start a freshmen point guard who has the potential to be very good, just needs experience and time to gel with the team. I still think they are a bottom of the league, maybe middle of the league type of team. But a lot of promises and could be very good in a few years.

Shawnee - exactly what I expected out of this team. The most athletic team in the tournament, and probably the most athletic team in the league. They have the best PG in the league, and will rely on him every night to put the ball in the hoop. The Miller kid provides alot of offense as well. Very athletic, and scores from all over the floor. In transition, out of sets, or just from cleaning up the boards. Shawnee will rely on these two to score alot of points but has good shooters, passers, and role players surrounding this team. Depth will be a concern for this team as they only go about 7-8 deep. Would not be surprised at all if this Shawnee team wins the WBL a third straight year. Do not sleep on them.
 
Big showdown this week in Defiance as they welcome in St. Mary's! Should be a packed house! Go Dogs!
 
Been a little disappointed in the Dogs so far. Not that 2-2 is bad, they've won the games I expected and lost the ones I expected. They've just looked sloppy. Paulding in particular, loses by 32 to Bluffton and 14 to Pettisville, plays us even for 3 quarters. Only a 2nd quarter surge won the game.

Not sure we have the size to contain the big kid for SM, but I know at our best we have the ability to keep in a game by hitting some outside shots. I just want to better fundamental ball and not go long stretches without scoring. I'll take the Riders in this one, but hoping it's a good one.
 
First thought on Parks.....he's no where close to 6'10". If he is, what we're calling 6'6" Cayden Zachrich is really 6'8".
 
Defiance with a big 48-35 win! If I came in knowing nothing on Parks the way this game played out, I'd think he was just your run of the mill big guy with no skills.

In reality, Defiance just swarmed him. At least 3, usually 4 on him everytime he touched the ball, and outside of a little run to end the 3rd the open shooters couldn't do anything to help him. He still made a difference on the boards and blocked a couple shots, but he was outscored in the battle of the big 16-4 and the team with the better toughness, quickness, and game plan won the night.
 
Nice win for Defiance, controlled most of this game. I as well was not impressed with Defiance last weekend, but they swarmed Parks and did a great job of getting hands on balls everywhere. If St. Marys could've hit some early threes it might've forced Defiance to play the perimeter more and loosen up on Parks, but the Riders just had trouble getting it in the rim from anywhere. The middle of the post was open quite a bit on offense for Defiance, and the players did a nice job of finding some easy, open layups on drives and cuts. Just a great job by the coaching staff on a game plan, and executing it.
 
Kenton will have an entire new style and have looked really good in their scrimmages. They will surprise a lot of people with their new coach. A good upswing from a down football season.
Don’t look now but Kenton is 2-0. I look for them to keeping pushing in the league. With Ryan Miller they will at least be in the top 3
 
Don’t look now but Kenton is 2-0. I look for them to keeping pushing in the league. With Ryan Miller they will at least be in the top 3

They beat Bath and Elida. Combined 3 wins. Slow your roll.

Edit: Y'all also lost to Riverdale. 1-6, D3, been destroyed by anyone with a pulse RIVERDALE.

Just your normal 8-14 season coming for Kenton. Carry on.
 
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Defiance with a big 48-35 win! If I came in knowing nothing on Parks the way this game played out, I'd think he was just your run of the mill big guy with no skills.

In reality, Defiance just swarmed him. At least 3, usually 4 on him everytime he touched the ball, and outside of a little run to end the 3rd the open shooters couldn't do anything to help him. He still made a difference on the boards and blocked a couple shots, but he was outscored in the battle of the big 16-4 and the team with the better toughness, quickness, and game plan won the night.
Did you see the Rossford/Defiance game? Interested in your thoughts on Parks compared to Vorst. They are AAU teammates.

Rossford shot the ball very well against Defiance.
 
Did you see the Rossford/Defiance game? Interested in your thoughts on Parks compared to Vorst. They are AAU teammates.

Rossford shot the ball very well against Defiance.

I missed that game, but did see it was a convincing win for Rossford.

I'm sure someone else on here saw both though.
 
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