Houston Basketball

A few years ago Sidney played Fairlawn in a game of high school basketball in the Sidney High gym. Our stands were packed, and the atmosphere was electric. That was my favorite game I had ever been to in high school athletics, in any sport. My second favorite was the Sidney basketball game against Piqua, once again, stands were packed. The student section was alive with chants and excitement. I loved it. However, no other game in my 3 years at Sidney High School had been like that. The support was not there.

I heard tales of Shelby County League basketball games and their abundant noise, spirit, and quality. I figured it must be true due to my experiences at the Fairlawn-Sidney game. The fans for both teams pack the gym, with home fans, and dedicated road fans. The schools are in close proximately to each other, so it is easy for this to happen. The teams have been in the same league with each other for almost 80 years, and they truely have rivalry with every school in the league, with the exception being Fairlawn. But even when Fairlawn had a quality team, they were hated, history being ignored, and the present being embraced.

I wanted to be apart of this in my senior year. I love basketball at any level. It may be my favorite sport, even though I am a fan of all trades. A stats freak, and anything in relation to the games I so love. If these things were subjects in school, and topics on the ACT, I would undoubtedly be a Rhodes Scholar, and that’s enough of tooting my own horn.

I began a search for a Shelby County League team that I would root for. I took some of the criteria for this search from Bill Simmons, one of my favorite writers of anything, and sports columnist for espn.com. Bill, who had been inspired by the World Cup, had decided to choose an English Premier League team of which to root for, year in and year out. His criteria for finding such a team, included uniform quality, history, talent of the present, fan base, and rival team. I made all of this criteria applicable to my search.

After going through all of the county league teams I narrowed it down to 3: Russia, Fort Loramie, and Houston. I ruled out Fort Loramie because of their jerseys, and their long tradition of excellence. And what really seperated them were their fan base. I could not stand their fan base, their school was too big, and I felt the people that went there were far more crass than the rest of the league. I did not want to belong to an elitist society of basketball. This left Russia and Houston. Russia also had a tradition of excellence. Winning 8 state titles in 30 years, and being on top of their game for almost a decade. Russia, however, was too far away, and too good for too long. I wanted Houston.

The red and white of Houston gives you that old Hoosiers feel. I loved them, they weren’t too fancy like Russia’s, and they were really gutsy. Houston has a black basketball player on their team, Brandon Hughes. It’s not so much that he’s black, but that he is a really cool guy. I know him from IUTIS softball, and his personality is vibrant. I love that he is the only black basketball player in the Shelby County League, which makes him even cooler. If this could not get any better, it is his afro that takes the cake. That thing is a beast, I can’t get enough of it. Houston is in close proximity to Sidney, making travel to the games easy. The history of the team is not nearly as voluptuous as Russia or Fort Loramie, but last year they had a memorable, out-of-nowhere run to the sweet 16 of Ohio hoops. This year, almost the whole team is back except for Brian Feathers and Matt Mullen, a pair of critical seniors, but Feathers is easily replaced by Hughes in the post, and Mullen by a few role players on the team. This team can go places this year, the fans are scrappy, just like their fans. I love it. And their rival? Fort Loramie. It doesn’t get better than this. I’ve gone to the games this year, last night being my 3rd. The team is 2-1, and lost the game to Loramie on the last shot of the game; 51-49. I lost my voice from cheering so hard, and were accompanied by Nate Clendenin and Derek Bowden. This will be a season of bliss, and I’m not getting of the bandwagon, go Wildcat basketball!