Circle Of Champions To Be Honored at OHSAA State Boys Basketball Final 4
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(OHSAA) – The Ohio High School Athletic Association will honor four Ohio natives during the 2023 Boys State Basketball Tournament on Saturday as part of its Circle of Champions recognition program, including James “Buster” Douglas, Keith Byars, Buddy Bell and Henry Armstead. In addition, many other awards will be recognized, including former Unioto and Piketon Boys and Chillicothe Girls Basketball Coach Jeff Lisath.
Zane Trace Coach Gary Kellough will also receive his 500th career win ring from the coaches association during a halftime presentation during the 2pm game on Saturday. Rob Beucler of Eastern Brown was also being honored for his 400th career win.
Zane Trace HS student MacKenzie Mash and the West Union School Choir will also be among those to perform the National Anthem prior to games being played over the weekend.
The four Circle of Champions include former world heavyweight boxing champion James “Buster” Douglas, a member of the Columbus Linden McKinley High School 1977 state basketball championship team; Dayton native and former All-American running back Keith Byars, and former six-time Gold Glove third baseman Buddy Bell of Cincinnati. Former Big Ten Conference football official Henry Armstead, a Canton native and member of the OHSAA Officials Hall of Fame, will also be recognized. The Circle of Champions program recognizes individuals who had prominent roles in the history of Ohio athletics. The state tournament will be held at the University of Dayton Arena Friday through Sunday, March 17-19.
Douglas attended Columbus Linden McKinley High School, where he played football and basketball. He was a junior on the Class AAA state championship basketball team in 1977 that completed an undefeated season by defeating defending state champion and top-ranked Barberton, which ended that school’s 51-game winning streak. After high school, he played basketball at three different colleges before moving back to Columbus to focus on boxing. Buster was a professional boxer between 1981 and 1999 and finished with a career record of 38-6-1. He is best known for becoming the undisputed world heavyweight champion in 1990 when he knocked out previously undefeated Mike Tyson in the 10th round in Tokyo in what most regard as the biggest upset in boxing history.
A three-sport standout, Byars helped the former Dayton Roth High School win back-to-back OHSAA state basketball and track & field championships in 1981 and 1982, but he made his mark after high school in football. While a running back at Ohio State, he led the nation in rushing and scoring as a junior in 1984, when he was the Big Ten MVP, All-American and runner-up to Doug Flutie for the Heisman Trophy. A broken foot limited his senior year before he was the No. 10 pick of Philadelphia in the first round of the 1986 NFL Draft. Keith spent 13 years in the NFL with four teams, making the Pro Bowl in 1993 with Miami and helping New England make the 1996 Super Bowl. He is in the Ohio State Athletic and College Football halls of fame.
Bell was a standout in both basketball and baseball at Archbishop Moeller High School. He was drafted and signed by the Cleveland Indians in 1969 and spent 18 years in the Major Leagues, including seven with Cleveland and parts of four seasons with Cincinnati. He was a five-time All-Star third baseman and won six consecutive Gold Glove awards. Buddy also managed in Detroit, Colorado and Kansas City, and is currently vice president and senior advisor to the general manager of the Reds. Buddy is the son of Reds Hall of Famer, the late Gus Bell, and his son David is currently the Reds’ manager.
Armstead was an OHSAA contest official in four sports for more than 50 years, and he spent 20 years as a Big Ten Conference football official. During his collegiate career, he worked six Ohio State vs. Michigan games and was chosen for 15 bowl games, including the 2001 National Championship game. Since retiring from officiating, Henry has served as a football clock operator at not only the OHSAA state championships in Canton but also two Big Ten Championship Games and the 2019 collegiate National Championship game. He is a member of the OHSAA Officials Hall of Fame and a graduate of Canton McKinley High School.
During last week’s OHSAA Girls State Basketball Tournament, two additional individuals were honored in the Circle of Champions recognition program, Dan Hughes and Katie Nageotte Moon. A native of Lowell, Ohio, not far from Marietta, Hughes spent the majority of his career as a women’s basketball coach, leading four WNBA teams over 19 seasons between 1999 and 2021 and serving as an assistant with the 2021 U.S. National Team that won a Gold Medal in the Olympic Games in Tokyo. He led the 2018 Seattle Storm to a 24-8 record and the WBNA championship and also contributed to the team’s 2020 WNBA championship from afar when he opted not to coach during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dan won 598 games in the WNBA, was twice voted league coach-of-the-year and his teams made the playoffs 12 times. He assisted collegiately with the men’s and women’s teams at Toledo, Mt. Union, Baldwin-Wallace and Miami.
An Olmsted Falls native, Nageotte Moon has been competing nationally and internationally in the pole vault since 2013, and her career highlights thus far have included a Gold Medal in the Olympic Games held in Tokyo in 2021 and first place in the World Outdoor Championships this past July in Eugene, Oregon. She followed that up by winning the U.S. Indoor Championships last month in Albuquerque. In high school, Katie won the OHSAA state pole vault championship as a senior in 2009 after finishing as runner-up the year before. Katie attended the University of Dayton for two years, winning Atlantic 10 indoor and outdoor pole vault titles in 2010. After transferring to Ashland University, she completed a sweep her senior year in 2013, winning indoor and outdoor pole vault titles in her conference meets and at the NCAA Division II championships. Now living and continuing to train in Georgia, Katie was married this past New Year’s Eve in Cleveland to her husband Hugo Moon.
Other awards will be presented during various times at this year’s boys state tournament. The honorees are as follows:
• The OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Awards are presented annually to two people for their contributions to the sport of basketball or interscholastic athletics. The 2023 winners were selected from the OHSAA Northeast and Northwest Districts, respectively, and are Jim Borchik and Bill Hanna. Borchik spent 40 years in education. His first six years were as a coach and/or instructor at four different universities or colleges in Ohio before teaching and coaching basketball at Barberton High School. In 1993, Jim moved to Copley High School, where he served as assistant principal and athletic administrator before retiring in 2016. Jim served eight years on the OHSAA’s Northeast District Athletic Board and had a two-year term on the OHSAA Board of Directors. Among his many honors includes induction into the state athletic administrators hall of fame. Hanna retired in 2012 after 35 years in education, serving as a teacher, coach and principal with stops at middle schools in Northwest and Northeast Ohio before serving as the principal at Norwayne High School in Wayne County for five years and Ottawa-Glandorf High School for his final 17 years. Bill was a member of the OHSAA’s Northwest District Athletic Board for 12 years and has served as that board’s treasurer since 2005. He also served a two-year term on the OHSAA Board of Directors and was a key member of the sportsmanship committees for both the Western Buckeye League and OHSAA.
• The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) affords each state the opportunity to annually honor an individual for their outstanding contributions to interscholastic athletics. During the state tournament, the OHSAA will posthumously recognize 2023 state service award winner Larry Acker, who died on Monday following a battle with cancer. Larry spent 50 of his 50-plus years in education with the Norwayne Local School District in Creston just outside of Wooster in Wayne County. At Norwayne, he was a teacher, athletic administrator and principal before serving as the district’s served as superintendent for 28 years before retiring following the 2012-13 school year. Larry was part of the OHSAA’s Northeast District Athletic Board for over 38 years, served two terms on the OHSAA Board of Directors and was the OHSAA Board of Directors’ president during the 2005-06 school year. Larry has been presented many awards over the years, including an OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Award, and the Norwayne High School gymnasium is named after him. He is survived by his wife Cindy.
• The 2023 OHSAA Coaches Sportsmanship, Ethics and Integrity Awards for boys basketball will be presented to Jeff Lisath. Jeff just completed his 27th year overall as a head coach and 10th year as head boys basketball coach at Dayton Northridge High School, where he has been responsible for transforming the basketball program by investing in and caring deeply for each of his players. He has won over 400 games coaching in Ohio, and he also serves as the assistant superintendent and director of operations for the Northridge Local Schools. Jeff was a two-time all-state player at Portsmouth High School, leading the Trojans to the 1978 OHSAA Class AA state championship.
• Stu Wilson, an Ohio Athletic Trainers Association (OATA) hall of fame inductee, will be recognized during the tournament. Stu was a teacher and athletic trainer for the Monroe Local Schools for nearly 30 years through 2015. He also has been a dedicated member of committees with both the OHSAA and OATA, serving as a member of the OHSAA’s Joint Advisory Committee on Sports Medicine and as the OATA’s chair of the secondary schools committee. Stu has received a number of honors and awards, including the OATA’s president’s award for leadership and service and the OATA’s athletic trainer of the year award, and the National Athletic Trainer Association’s service award.
• 2023 inductees into the Ohio Prep Sports Writers Hall of Fame to be recognized are the late Karl Pearson, Bob Rossiter and Steve Junga. Pearson, who died in 2011, was at the Ashtabula Star Beacon for 35 years, serving as a sports writer before moving to assistant sports editor and then sports editor. He was inducted into the Ashtabula County football, basketball and bowling halls of fame and was the recipient of the OHSAA’s Northeast District Media Service Award. Rossiter is the first photographer to be inducted into the OPSWA Hall of Fame. Bob began his career during his senior year at Canton McKinley High School, then was hired full-time by the Canton Repository in 1972. He has covered everything from U.S. presidents to Super Bowl champions, but high school sports has been his passion. He has won numerous awards from the Associated Press and Ohio News Photography Association and continues to work on a part-time basis for the Repository after retiring from full-time work in 2019. Junga is currently in his 36th year covering sports for the Toledo Blade. Steve began writing for the Metro Press/Suburban Press in 1985. He moved to the Blade in 1987 and has specialized in high school sports while also covering many college and pro events. Steve has won numerous awards from the Associated Press, OPSWA and Professional Bowlers Association and has been on the all-district football and basketball panel and been a state poll voter for several years.
• The Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) will recognize several coaches from who have hit certain milestones in victories and/or consecutive years in the profession and several service award winners. Among the OHSBCA honorees are 2023 Paul Walker Award winner Dennis Tucci, head boys coach at Malvern High School; 2023 Wooden Legacy Award winner Doc Daugherty, former longtime coach at Euclid High School and co-founder of the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame, and Dave Boyce, head boys coach at Perrysburg High School, who is the Ohio nominee as the National Federation of State High School Association’s coach-of-the-year. In addition, the OHSBCA is celebrating its 75th anniversary and will recognize many of the association’s past presidents.
• Also, the Ohio Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association will recognize several two athletic administrators for winning Bruce Brown Awards of Excellence: Joe Bline from Dublin Jerome High School and James Collins from Cincinnati West Clermont High School.
• In addition, the OHSAA will be recognizing two of the teams that are celebrating the 25th anniversary of their 1998 state championships (Cleveland Benedictine – Division II; Dayton Jefferson Township – Division IV) and one team that is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its 1973 state championship (Columbus Bishop Ready – Class AA).
Recognitions will take place as follows:
Friday, March 17, 10:45 Game, End of 1st Quarter: NFHS Ohio Service Award (the late Larry Acker)
Friday, March 17, 5:15 Game, End of 1st Quarter: OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Award (Jim Borchik)
Saturday, March 18, 10:45 Game, End of 1st Quarter: OHSAA Naismith Meritorious Service Award (Bill Hanna)
Saturday, March 18, 10:45 Game, Halftime: Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association (OHSBCA) Recognitions (Past Officers)
Saturday, March 18, 2:00 Game, End of 1st Quarter: OHSBCA Paul Walker Award (Dennis Tucci)
Saturday, March 18, 2:00 Game, Halftime: OHSBCA Coaches Recognitions and Awards (Includes Doc Daugherty and Dave Boyce)
Saturday, March 18, 5:15 Game, End of 1st Quarter: OHSAA Coaches Sportsmanship Award (Jeff Lisath)
Saturday, March 18, 5:15 Game, Halftime: OHSAA Circle of Champions Recognitions (Henry Armstead, Buddy Bell, Keith Byars and James “Buster” Douglas)
Saturday, March 18, 8:30 Game, End of 1st Quarter: OHSAA State Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame Recognition (Stu Wilson)
Sunday, March 19, 10:45 Game, Halftime: OIAAA Bruce Brown Awards of Excellence (Joe Bline and James Collins)
Sunday, March 19, 2:00 Game, Halftime: 50-Year Anniversary State Championship Team Recognition (Columbus Bishop Ready)
Sunday, March 19, 5:15 Game, Halftime: 25-Year Anniversary State Championship Team Recognitions (Cleveland Benedictine and Dayton Jefferson Township)
Sunday, March 19, 8:30 Game, Halftime: Ohio Prep Sports Writers Association Hall of Fame Recognition (the late Karl Pearson, Bob Rossiter and Steve Junga)
2023 Boys Basketball State Tournament National Anthem Performers:
March 17, 10:45 AM – Choir, Kettering Fairmont HS
March 17, 2:00 PM – Choir, West Union HS
Mar 17, 5:15 PM – Choir, Dayton Oakwood HS
March 17, 8:30 PM – Acapella Group, Dayton Chaminade-Julienne HS
March 18, 10:45 AM – Wyatt Ketring, New Madison Tri-Village HS
March 18, 2:00 PM – Caylin McCormick, Huron HS
March 18, 5:15 PM – Paige Sheldon, Wynford Junior HS
March 18, 8:30 PM – Choir, Bellbrook HS
March 19, 10:45 AM – Mora Menzie, Arcanum HS
March 19, 2:00 PM – Choir, Bowling Green HS
March 19 – 5:15 PM – MacKenzie Mash, Zane Trace HS
March 19 – 8:30 PM – Lexi Waldner, Lakota West HS
