Portage Sports Stories for April 11
When the 2020-21 high school boys basketball season came to a close a few weeks back, it put the final stamp on the prep career of Waterloo’s Kyle Shockley.
The lightning-quick guard, whose ability to create scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates, put together the best four years in school history.
He stands as the Vikings’ all-time leading scorer (1,443 points) and leading passer (248 assists) while ranking top five in nearly every other major statistical category.
Crunching those numbers were rather easy, really.
But once the dust settled from the season, another interesting historical component was discovered.
One that Shockley now shares with former teammate Vaughn Dorsey, who graduated from Waterloo a year prior to Shockley.
Dorsey and Shockley both earned first team All-Ohio honors, becoming the first back-to-back first team All-Ohio players from the same team in Portage County history.
“Vaughn and Kyle were the two kids that really were the cornerstone to the [program] rebuild,” Waterloo boys basketball coach Jason Wise said. “We knew they had talent at a young age, but the work they put into becoming the players they did is a credit to their work outside the gym. They both put in a ton of time on their own.
“Vaughn is arguably the best athlete Waterloo has ever had and made himself a great player by his senior season,” Wise added. “Kyle is the kid that can carry a team on his own. His skill-set is crazy. He went from 5-foot-5 to 6-foot-3 in three seasons and his little-guy skills carried over to when he grew. His game grew at the same rate he did.”
The historical component connected to All-Ohio status threw me into a research project to identify every All-Ohio basketball player in Portage County history.
A complete list from every school can be found on record-courier.com and is quite the trip down memory lane — for both high school boys and girls basketball.
For a county with a long, long list of talented players, it was surprising to find that only 14 players in Portage County history had earned first team All-Ohio status, including more Waterloo history with Eric Schiele earning the county’s first and only Player of the Year honors for his other-worldly senior season in 2005-06 (Division III).
Those first team All-Ohio players include: Andy Stiegemeier, Kent Roosevelt, 1971-72; Jody Hill, Windham, 1974-75; Baxter Jones, Windham, 1977-78 and 1976-77; Tom Pollock, Mogadore, 1978-79; Rod Swartz, Mogadore, 1982-83; Scott Decker, Woodridge, 1983-84; Kevin McCarthy, Kent Roosevelt, 1985-86; Ricky Brown, Mogadore, 1990-91; Eric Schiele, Waterloo, 2005-06; Ian McGuire, Windham, 2005-06; Phil Workman, Windham, 2007-08; Robert Wilson, Streetsboro, 2008-09; Trent Jakacki, Crestwood, 2020-21; Kyle Shockley, Waterloo, 2020-21.
The All-Ohio honors were compiled by the Associated Press from 1938-2017. The Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association began to oversee the All-Ohio teams beginning in 2017.
The honors are designated at a media meeting held at a regional site and it is worth noting that the Record-Courier began sending a staff representative in person to those meetings beginning with the 2002-03 season.
With girls basketball, Portage County has 13 that have earned first first team All-Ohio status, including 1996-97 Division IV Player of the Year Julie McDivitt from Windham.
The full first team All-Ohio list for girls basketball includes: Kim Wilson, Garfield, 1988-89; Julie McDivitt, Windham, 1996-97; Colleen McGuire, Windham, 2001-02; Cara Bedard, Waterloo, 2006-07; Kelli Pollock, Mogadore, 2006-07; Ashley Christani, Rootstown, 2007-08; Jordan Poth, Mogadore, 2008-09 and 2009-10; DiAndra Gibson, Ravenna, 2010-11; Jessica Isler, Windham, 2013-14 and 2014-15; Danielle Norquest, Southeast, 2015-16; Brittany Knight, Windham, 2015-16; Grayson Rose, Garfield, 2016-17; Shyanne Sellers, Aurora, 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21.
And while we are talking history, longtime Mogadore sports enthusiast and one of the county’s most revered and trusted statisticians, Bob Rick, helped compile a listing of all-time wins and losses for the teams in the Record-Courier’s most immediate coverage area.
High school boys basketball:
Windham: 1,159-708
Mogadore: 1,119-911
Kent Roosevelt: 923-964
Garfield: 877-1,038
Rootstown: 874-995
Ravenna: 791-1,150
Aurora: 649-949
Southeast: 635-795
Waterloo: 626-531
Crestwood: 538-742
Woodridge: 536-685
Field: 514-747
Streetsboro: 498-916
High school girls basketball:
Waterloo: 593-428
Ravenna: 582-411
Mogadore: 575-487
Crestwood: 505-422
Southeast: 500-452
Rootstown: 490-486
Field: 475-465
Windham: 436-471
Kent Roosevelt: 430-518
Garfield: 422-515
Aurora: 339-586
Woodridge: 335-514
Streetsboro: 212-649
Read More: Portage Sports Stories for April 11