by The high school girls basketball season is fast approaching. How do we know? Because the annual Greater Cleveland Basketball Coaches Association (GCBCA) Showcase was held Wednesday night at Berea-Midpark High School.
Since the year 2000, the GCBCA has sponsored showcase events for boys and girls, giving juniors and seniors the opportunity to play in front of Division II and Division III college coaches.
“I think it gives girls the opportunity to get to play with another group of girls, and it gets them the opportunity to showcase their talents in front of other high school coaches and in front of college coaches,” said Strongsville coach Madyson Farnbauch, whose squad is expected to be one of the top teams in the state this season.
Several college programs had coaches in the stands, including Baldwin Wallace, Bryant & Stratton, Hiram, John Carroll, Malone, Mount Union, St. Vincent and Ursuline.
“We try to get as many college coaches as we can,” said Magnificat coach Danny Gallagher, who helped put together the showcase along with Olmsted Falls coach Jordan Eaton. “It’s just a showcase for the coaches to come out, the girls to come out, the media to come out to see what’s out there right now.”
A total of 53 girls signed up for the showcase, an all-time high. In fact, last year there were about 30 participants.
“Jordan and I spent a lot of time putting this together,” said Gallagher. “We want to grow it and make it better for our girls. We also want to make our association as strong as we can be. We put a lot of time into it, and we got a lot of responses from our local coaches. In Northeast Ohio we have some of the best coaches, and it’s fun to see a group like this come together and to see coaches coming together instead of going at each other.”
According to Eaton, one of the reasons for the increased turnout was that he and Gallagher instituted an online registration process, which coaches found to be user friendly. But Eaton said there’s another reason as well.
“I think coaches are starting to realize that girls are wanting to play more college basketball,” he said. “I think we’ve seen that the girls game has really grown a lot and it continues to grow. I think the overall talent in Northeast Ohio has gone way up in the past 8-10 years and I think this turnout is a result of that. Some of these girls were young kids when that started and they’re now starting to realize that maybe they can play in college.”
This is a dead period as far as Division I recruiting, so the participants in the showcase were players who are looking to play on either the Division II or Division III level. One such player is Jesse Simon of Olmsted Falls, a junior who helped the Bulldogs win the Division I state title last year. She also is a standout player on her school’s very good volleyball team, but she still found time to come to the showcase.
“It’s a good space to get in some playing, especially before our season starts,” she said. “There’s a lot of coaches here to see us, so it’s good exposure, too.”
Simon said she and her teammates are still basking in the glory of bringing home last year’s championship trophy.
“There are signs up in the school that I pass every day,” she said. “I’m looking through my camera every day. It’s definitely something that I look back on a lot. It’s a great feeling. We’re all so thankful for what we had last year. But we’re also excited for this year.”
Here are some observations from the showcase:
After a short warm-up period the players were divided into groups of three and spent 15 minutes on a half-court three-on-three drill. Then they were randomly selected onto six teams and spent the remainder of the evening playing five-on-five, with two games going on at once. Most of the players had never played together before, so it took a while for them to get accustomed to their new teammates, but, eventually, the talent started showing through.
Listed alphabetically, some of the top players on this night were Dekotah Barnes of Cornerstone Christian, Alexa Ferrito of Mentor, Nevaeh Harrison of Trinity, Darlene Jaidah of Padua, Olivia Miller of Avon Lake, and Bella Molnar of Nordonia.
It should be noted that Gallagher was fresh off coaching the Magnificat golf team to the Division I state championship Monday and Tuesday at NCR Country Club in Dayton. Gallagher coached golf at St. Edward for eight years, and in his two years as Magnificat’s coach he has led the Blue Streaks to a state runner-up finish last year and the state championship this year.
“I walked into really good players,” he said. “They’re really talented. We were state runner-up last year and we had a lot coming back, so we knew we would have a good chance. Dublin Jerome was undefeated all year, but we were close to them a couple times. We faced them six times, and we were as close as one stroke at our home invitational. So, we knew we could do it.”
The Streaks had a team score of 308 on the first day, giving them a five-shot lead over Jerome. On the second day Magnificat shot 310, but Jerome ballooned up to 321, giving the Blue Streaks the title by 16 strokes.
“Our girls just played great,” Gallagher said. “It was so exciting. On the back nine (of the second day), our girls shot 35, 36, 37 and 38. So, I feel like we won it. We went out and took it.”
Ironically, Gallagher jokingly said he is now feeling more pressure for the upcoming basketball season. Last year the Streaks reached the Final Four, and much of that team returns.
“You don’t know how many texts I got that say, ‘OK, you got golf, now you’ve got to go out and get basketball,’” he said. “But it’s so hard. You never know what’s going to happen with kids.”
