Under pressure? Here's how central Ohio's undefeated basketball teams stay focused
Olentangy Orange boys basketball coach Anthony Calo couldn’t help but laugh after his team’s 14th win in as many games to start the season.
Amid congratulatory messages from friends and colleagues regarding both the Pioneers’ record and state ranking, Calo fielded questions about the last time Orange carried an undefeated record well into the season or found itself ranked anywhere nearly as high as second in Division I, which it was last week.
As for the answers …
“We were 10-0 and third in the AP (poll) last year,” Calo said with a smile. “Those guys really set us up for success.”
Or, as Calo said one college coach recently told him, the Pioneers “caught it” — “it” being the taste and culture of success from a team that went 24-4 and finished as a Division I regional runner-up, not to mention the ability to handle the noise and pressure success can bring. Orange is one of three undefeated teams remaining in central Ohio, along with the girls from Circleville and Newark Catholic, and 17 statewide.
Orange (15-0) is ranked first in the state this week, a first since the school opened in 2008.
“They figured out how to be dynamic,” Calo said. “(These guys) caught what the other team had, winning in a fun way, and now we’re applying that. If you think about that number (zero losses), it will loom over you and be a nightmare. There are a lot of theories out there, (including) you need a loss (before the tournament), whatever. We’re just one game at a time. Let’s prepare the way we prepare.”
Olentangy’s girls were 15-0 before a 51-40 loss to Olentangy Liberty on Saturday. Even so, the Braves (16-1) are atop the Division I state poll for the second consecutive week.
“(The unbeaten start) comes up every once in a while,” coach Jamie Edwards said after a 49-48 OCC-Cardinal win at then-No. 3 Marysville on Friday. “We talk about how many teams have been unbeaten. When we got to 10-0, we told them, ‘You guys are doing something special.’ ”
Newark Catholic (15-0), ranked third in Division IV, has pulled out six wins by eight points or fewer.
Circleville coach Brian Bigam said his team mixes any target on its back with a responsibility to compete. The Tigers (15-0) are fifth in Division II this week.
“As far as pressure goes, I'm not sure many people expected us to be where we are currently other than in our locker room, and we are fine with that,” Bigam said. “We have discussed the bull's-eye on our back getting bigger and bigger as the season continues and to embrace it. We want to be a program that gets everyone’s best night in and night out. We also understand the responsibility that comes with the territory.”
Similarly, Olentangy freshman Sydney Mobley said her team embraced the pressure of being the hunted.
“We want to be playing these great teams that make us better and we have to think about the game, we have to strategize,” Mobley said. “We’re proud that we’re winning and we definitely celebrate that we’re winning, but also remember that at any moment someone could through and take it away.”
Even the best teams are only halfway to an unbeaten season. New Madison Tri-Village (30-0) and Richmond Heights (29-0) ran the table a year ago to win the Division IV girls and boys championships, respectively, and the latter won 49 games in a row until losing its first two this season.
Ready boys coach Tony Bisutti remembers what he preached throughout last season, when the Silver Knights won their first 28 games before falling in a Division II state semifinal.
“(I remember thinking) how unrealistic it was to try to go undefeated, so instead of going undefeated we just tried to win the next game,” Bisutti said. “It really didn’t get to the top of our mind until maybe the first week of February. We had a game on a Saturday against Dayton Dunbar up at Ottawa-Glandorf and we were down 12 in the first quarter and I wondered if that might be it. We ended up winning comfortably, and I walked away thinking we had a chance.”
Orange guard Treyton Schroeder, a sophomore who helped the Pioneers’ junior varsity team to a 20-0 record last season, said coaches consistently keep their message simple.
“They preach that we’re nowhere near our potential, nowhere near our best,” Schroeder said. “We have a lot of work to do.”
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Unbeaten central Ohio high school basketball teams maintain focus
