ONTARIO — Lenell Shelby didn’t think twice when the question was raised earlier this season.
How does this year’s Ontario team compare to the one that won an Associated Press Division II poll championship last year?
“I don’t compare teams,” said Shelby, one of three holdovers from a team that handed D2 state champ Norwalk its only loss last winter. “Every team is different.”
The common thread, it turns out, is winning.
Despite losing a wealth of talent to graduation — including honorable mention All-Ohioan Cameron Mack and Brandon Wagner, a freshman shooting guard for Ashland University — the Warriors just keep rolling along. With its 71-46 win over Highland on Saturday, Ontario improved to 13-1.
“I don’t know if we expected to be (13-1), but we thought we could be pretty good,” veteran Ontario coach Joe Balogh said. “We had our point guard (Shelby) back, along with Paul Homan and Bradley Garverick. They all played significant minutes for us last year.
“Then we had some kids moving up from our junior varsity team. They all had very good summers.”
Perhaps the biggest reason for Ontario’s success is the stability provided by Balogh and his coaching staff. Balogh has been a head coach for 30 years and all 30 have been spent at Ontario. Assistant coach Carl Schnittke and junior varsity coach Tim Henige have been onboard “for about 20 years,” Balogh said.
“Carl played for me the first year I was a head coach (1985-86) and my eighth-grade coach, Andy Kurtz also played for me and he’s been with us for about 10 years now,” Balogh said. “Those guys have an understanding of what we are trying to do and we don’t have to start over each year.
“That consistency really helps. If you ask our seniors, they will tell you not a lot has changed in terms of philosophy and terminology since they started in our program in the third or fourth grade.”
Ontario’s grade school program, for third through sixth graders, runs for nine Saturdays through the end of February. The Ontario staff also hosts camps and Balogh has been organizing a summer league for the better part of the past two decades.
“We want to make sure we give our kids opportunities to be successful,” Balogh said. “The other big thing we emphasize to the kids is it’s not just about what they are doing when the coaches are around. It’s about what they do when they are alone.
“Our kids have bought into that philosophy.”
The philosophy has been working since the Ronald Reagan Administration. Before Balogh came on board for the 1985-86 season, Ontario hadn’t won a sectional since the mid-1970s. In 30 years since he took over, the Warriors have won 19 league titles, 15 sectional championships and seven district crowns. Last year’s poll championship was Ontario’s second, the first coming in 1998.
The Warriors advanced to the Final Four in 1995, falling to Orrville (coached by Shelby native the late Steve Smith) 68-65 in overtime. Orrville pounded Wheelersburg 79-50 in the championship game, winning the first of two straight state titles.
Midway through his 30th year, Balogh has a career record of 485-184 (.725 winning percentage). Unofficially, he is tied for 52nd place on Ohio’s career wins list and is on pace to join Mansfield Senior’s Vern Hoffman as the only area coaches to top 500 wins. He shared the Division II Ohio Coach of the Year award with four other coaches last year.
Some high school basketball fans wondered if Ontario would continue to thrive in the bigger Northern Ohio League after leaving the small-school North Central Conference a year before the NCC disbanded.
Ontario is 17-1 in the NOL. The Warriors shared the NOL title with Norwalk last year and is a game ahead of Sandusky in the league title chase this year.
“Our first goal every year is to win the league championship,” Balogh said. “Then you want to put yourself in a position where the last game you play (in the tournament) you beat by a team that is better than you.”
The tournament draw is Feb. 15 and the sectional begins the week of Feb. 23.
“This is an exciting time of year,” Balogh said. “We call this time of year the grind and we want our kids to embrace it and enjoy the experience.”
“We want to make sure we give our kids opportunities to be successful,” Balogh said. “The other big thing we emphasize to the kids is it’s not just about what they are doing when the coaches are around. It’s about what they do when they are alone.”
