When St. John's basketball defeated Garfield Heights in last Saturday's regional final, that ended the Titans' 14-year stretch without reaching a state semifinal.
It also ended the second longest drought ever for Division I Toledo metro area team to reach a state semifinal at 10 years. The last local team (from Toledo or a connected suburb) to advance was Rogers, which was the D-I state runner-up in 2013.
Cardinal Stritch reached a lower (Division III) state semifinal in 2019.
Since the first Ohio High School Athletic Association boys basketball tournament was held in 1923, the longest stretch between final-four appearances by big-school teams from metro Toledo was 15 years.
That drought came between Waite's Class A state runner-up finish in 1927, back when the OHSAA had tournaments for classes A and B, and Central Catholic's Class-A runner-up finish in 1942.
Maumee made the Class B semifinals in 1935 in between, but was not in the big-school class.
STING REMAINS
Although a couple players remain on the St. John's varsity from the 2020-21 team, this year's run to the state final four does not erase the sting of what happened to the Titans to close that season.
St. John's had closed the coronavirus-interrupted 2020-21 regular season a 13-4 overall record, sharing the TRAC title at 6-1 with Lima Senior and Findlay. The Titans recorded an impressive late-season 63-41 win at Lima Senior and eliminated Findlay with a convincing 41-26 win in the district finals.
But, three nights earlier, St. John's had pounded Anthony Wayne 59-41 in a district semifinal. After the subsequent win over Findlay, the AW administration reported the Generals had used a player against the Titans who had later tested positive for coronavirus.
“Because of that, we had to talk with the county healthy department, watch the game film, and see who the kid touched, and it was such a quick situation,” Schoen said. “The OHSAA had put some rules in place about this, and with the time the [regional] game was supposed to happen, we couldn't play anymore.”
Because of contact tracing procedures the OHSAA had in place — as mandated by the Ohio Department of Health during that stage of the pandemic — St. John's players were determined to have had enough close contact with the infected AW player to make them a health risk for the regional semifinals.
The Titans were removed from the tournament prior to their scheduled March 10 game against Lima Senior, which advanced to the regional final and lost 56-44 to Cleveland St. Ignatius.
“No one got sick,” Schoen said. “Everyone was fine, and we were definitely unjustifiably eliminated from the tournament. We were going to play an opponent who we had beaten by 22 points a couple weeks before, so we felt really confident going into that one. We had six incredible seniors who were really good players and good guys. I think we definitely had a shot to get down there [to 2021 state tourney].”
The disappointment of that removal remains.
“We've had those 2021 seniors — Thomas Zsiros, Shane Garcia, Brady Lichtenberg, Jaiden McKinstry, Andrew Miller, and John Obeta — come back, and they've been around this team,” Schoen said. “I told those guys, once we did this [reach state], that people were asking me 'Does this make it better?'
“Honestly, no. They're two different teams. Those guys deserved it, and it was taken away from them. This one is sweet for this group, but that other one will never not sting.”
FREQUENT VISITOR
This will be the seventh state final four appearance for St. John's, which earned its previous six berths under 40-year coach Ed Henitschel, who ranks fourth all-time in Ohio prep boys basketball coaching victories (725-224 record).
Heintschel's Titans finished as state runners-up in 1993, 1996, and 2004, and his teams from 2003, 2006, and 2009 lost in the D-I semifinals.
Scott has had the most state appearances among Toledo teams with eight. The Bulldogs lost in semifinals in 1959, 1960, 1974, 1976, 1978, 1982, and 1984 before winning a Division I state championship in 1990.
That team remains as Toledo's last boys state basketball champion.
FOLLOWING A LEGEND
Schoen, now in his fourth season, has posted a 67-33 overall record thus far, with one TRAC co-championship (in his second season) and two district titles.
Schoen, a 2005 St. John's graduate, played as a backup on the Titans' 2004 state runner-up team, and previously served 10 years as a St. John's assistant under Heintschel, who also won a league title in his second season, but needed 14 seasons to reach his first state semifinal.
Counting his 3-1 mark in an interim head-coaching stint for the 2016 tournament, Schoen has posted a 15-3 postseason record with the Titans.
First Published March 17, 2023, 3:13 p.m.
