Some things that people see, and sometimes even witness themselves, are hard to believe. I have seen many sports records that may never be broken, and witnessed the record breakers doing it. Wilt Chamberlain in basketball(nobody is ever going to average 50 points a game for a season again!)Edwin Moses in track(10 years without losing!) Pete Rose( we all know!) and Jim Brown in football(12,312 rushing yards in only 9 years! The record wasn’t broken until 1984 by Walter Payton. Jim Brown is still 11th on the all-time list!) All-time records for sure, I believe. The best thing, though, is that right now, some records we see now may never be broken, and they are local schools right here at home!
There are two that need special mention, I think, and they are not done yet. One of them is Marion Local, and what they are doing in High School Football. They have won 64 in a row, the longest in Ohio history, to become the winningest Championship team in Ohio History with 15 Championships. That is a real statement about the school, its teachers and coaches, and the commitment the students have to excellence. They are to be admired and should be copied for how they do what they do. I refereed many of their games, and I can tell you their athletes were always very respectful, and never did I have any problems with them. Their coaching staff was always respectful, not always agreeing with me, but respectful. They do it right, and I got to see some of it first hand!
The other one is the Lady Wave softball team. This year marks the 22nd year in a row that they have won at least 25 games. Greenville is 7th on the all-time Ohio list with 884 wins, and that was through 2024. Now they have 909 wins. I can find no other team that has a streak of 25 wins for 22 years. That is very impressive! This is also a tribute to the school, coaches, and athletes, and their commitment to excellence. This team needs the admiration of everybody, just like Marion Local, because I believe that people who never played in sports do not realize the sacrifice and work it takes to excel. It is a year-round commitment, which is hard to do, especially when you are young, and other things are much more fun than working out at your chosen sport. Ladies, you have shown us how to act and sacrifice for excellence, which needs to be noticed!
There are two things that Marion Local and Lady Wave softball can teach us all. One is that good coaches can make a difference. Tim Goodwin at Marion and Jerrod Newland at Greenville are much alike. Both are usually, and I say usually, pretty quiet and just coach. They never let their teams forget the basics, and they are true sportsmen when it comes to their actions. Both drive their teams hard, and if you aren’t good enough, you don’t play at the High School level, but everybody plays at the Junior High level. That is where you learn. Two, it is year-round with them. I know that the Lady Wave works very hard year-round to continue their excellence on the field, and it shows in their play and record.
22 years with at least 25 wins is amazing. That is a record that may only be broken by next year’s team. The only chink in the armor is only 1 State Championship. That just goes to show how difficult it is in softball, because it only takes one bad game, one bad break, one lonely bounce of the ball, one miscue, or one injury, to not win it all. ONE factor changes everything. Call it fate, bad luck, or whatever, it is hard to do. That does not detract from the excellence they have achieved. Tom Brady didn’t win every Super Bowl, not every Kentucky Derby winner has won the Triple Crown, and Michael Jordan was 24-11 in the NBA finals. Not even the greatest wins them all.
Maybe, just maybe, they will win it all this year. Who Knows? If they don’t, they don’t, but I know they will give everything they have to win it all. They are committed to excellence. There is one thing I can tell Coach Newland and the girls, and I hope they understand how important this message is. Vince Lombardi, one of the greatest coaches of all time, told his team this: Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will never catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we will relentlessly chase it because in the process, we will catch excellence. I AM NOT REMOTELY INTERESTED IN JUST BEING GOOD!
….And neither are our Lady Wave softball players!
GOOD LUCK LADIES!!
That’s the way I see it……..from the sidelines.
