Richland Source will select one student athlete to be recognized as the Park National Bank Athlete of the Month during the 2023-24 school year. Nominations for Athlete of the Month are accepted from Athletic Directors and Coaches, but are ultimately chosen by Richland Source and are based on the student’s exceptional athletic performance, effective teamwork and achievement in their communities. Park National Bank is proud to support this initiative and is giving the athletic department of each school $1,000 in honor of each athlete chosen.
SHELBY — He was honored as the state’s Division II Player of the Year by both the Ohio Prep Sportswriters Association and the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association, but Alex Bruskotter would gladly exchange his individual accolades for two more wins.
Shelby’s senior guard would trade it all for a state championship.
The Wright State recruit came that close to leading his team to that very peak — making him March’s Park National Bank Athlete of the Month.
Bruskotter piloted the Whippets to the first Final Four appearance in program history during a record-setting senior year. Shelby won a single-season record 25 games and captured its fifth consecutive Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference crown.
Sectional, district and regional titles followed before the Whippets (25-3) fell to Maysville 68-65 in the state semifinals at the University of Dayton Arena. Bruskotter matched a Division II state semifinal game record with 34 points on 13-of-16 shooting.
“The Bruskotter kid, I mean my goodness,” Maysville coach Dave Brown said afterward. “He hit some tough shots.”
The 6-foot-7 senior never left the floor in the semifinal loss and got better as the lights burned brighter. He was a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor in the fourth quarter, including a clutch 3-pointer with 1:28 remaining that trimmed Maysville’s lead to 64-62.
“Obviously, I’d want to be playing (for a state championship),” Bruskotter said as he fought back tears after the semifinal loss. “I would choose a game that we win over a good (individual) game that we lose, but that wasn’t the case this time.”
That Bruskotter found himself on Ohio high school basketball’s biggest stage came as no surprise to Shelby coach Greg Gallaway. This season’s success — both individually and as a team — was the culmination of several years’ worth of work.
“It did not come easy by any means,” Gallaway said. “All of those milestones are because of the time he put in.”
A four-year letterman and three-time All-Ohioan, Bruskotter will graduate as the second most prolific scorer in Shelby history. Unofficially, he capped his career with 1,688 points, second only to Ohio State All-American and five-time NBA champ Larry Siegfried (1,798).
As a freshman, Bruskotter played a supporting role on Shelby’s last district-championship team in 2021. He averaged about five points a game as the T.J. Pugh-led Whippets reached the regional semifinals.
Pugh graduated that spring and Bruskotter took over the leading scorer’s role the following year. As a sophomore, he averaged 19.6 points a game as the Whippets went 19-4 in Gallaway’s first season. Bruskotter was selected to the All-Ohio third team.
Bruskotter averaged 21.7 points a game as a junior, helping the Whippets to a 20-4 record and earning a spot on the All-Ohio second team. That set the stage for a jaw-dropping senior season that saw him average 23 points a game.
His 645 points were the most in a single season since Siegfried scored 880 points as a senior during the 1956-57 season. Bruskotter joined Siegfried in Shelby’s two-man 50-point club when he scored 53 points in an 84-61 win at Ashland in early January.
The win over Ashland was the second of 14 straight Shelby victories to close the regular season. The winning streak reached 19 before the state semifinal loss to Maysville.
Remarkably, the Whippets went nearly three months — 84 days to be exact — between losses.
“As a kid this is all I wanted to do, come out here and play on this stage,” Bruskotter said at Dayton after the Final Four loss. “This is probably the most memorable high school game I will ever play in.
“This was a great season … and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m just happy to have this great last season with my guys.”
Shelby’s eight-man senior class was among the most successful in program history. The Whippets were a combined 84-15 with three 20-win seasons in the past four years. Shelby had only three other 20-victory seasons in program history before Bruskotter’s freshman year.
So what have Bruskotter and his classmates meant to the program?
“It’s hard for me to put into words right here,” Gallaway said in the state semifinal press conference. “These guys led this program to be the best Shelby High School team ever in the history of the school.
“It’s actually incredible to think about. They put so much into this program and this community and this school district and the best part about it is they were selfless through this whole process. We aren’t here without them.”
For Bruskotter, it was a labor of love — love for his teammates and the tightly-knit Shelby community.
“It was really cool to see our community come together as one,” Bruskotter said. “It feels good to go out with a bang. I’m really blessed to just be in this situation.”
