OTTAWA – Even the best high school basketball programs drop the baton occasionally. But not Ottawa-Glandorf.
OK, never might be too strong a word. But almost never might not be too far off.
When the Titans take the court in the Division III boys basketball state tournament at the University of Dayton Arena on Friday morning, it will be the ninth time the school has played in a boys state hoops tournament since 1977.
As impressive as that number is, there is another one that testifies even more effectively to the solid foundation and relentless consistency of the Titans’ boys basketball program.
Every Ottawa-Glandorf boys basketball coach in almost a half century has been in the coach’s box at a state tournament at least once.
It started in 1977 and 1978 when the Titans made their first two trips to the state tournament and Ron Niekamp was the coach.
They got back in 1996 and 2004 when Dave Sweet was O-G’s coach and won the school’s first basketball state championship in 2004.
Four years later the Titans won again in 2008 with Josh Leslie as coach. And this year’s trip to the University of Dayton Arena for the 2022 state tournament is the fourth time in the 11 years Tyson McGlaughlin has coached O-G that it has gone to a state tournament.
Ottawa-Glandorf won a state championship in 2013. It was a state semifinalist in 2012 and last year. And it’s back in the semifinals again this year.
With success has come a longstanding level of fan support not seen in a lot of places.
“We have over 800 season ticket holders. I think we have over 750 people still on a waiting list for season tickets,” McGlaughlin said on Tuesday.
“It’s two communities that just truly love basketball and their high school athletes. They really support them. They’ll travel anywhere. You’ll see that Friday morning,” he said.
Ottawa-Glandorf endured seven consecutive losing seasons before Niekamp, who played at St. Henry and Miami University, was hired with with only two years of coaching experience at Parkway High School on his resume.
John Bruns, a first-year teacher at O-G from St. Henry, told Niekamp he should pursue the Titans’ job in the summer of 1974.
“He said they had been on a real bad streak but he thought there was some potential there. I took his word for it,” Niekamp said on Tuesday. “Looking back, some potential would have been accurate but an understatement.
“I had just gotten married a month before school started. A neighbor took my wife to one of the local establishments to introduce her to some people. She introduced her to someone as the wife of the new basketball coach. Whoever the gentleman was he said, ‘I don’t know whether to congratulate you or offer you my condolences.’ ”
But things have changed since the few down years of the early 1970s. As McGlaughlin said several years ago, “Our kids go to games when they’re young with the dream of wearing the blue and gold. They understand at a young age it’s not about sectional championships.”
Leslie called Ottawa-Glandorf “one of the best basketball jobs in the state” when he was hired in 2005.
“It still is. Only a fool would leave that job,” he said with a laugh on Wednesday, referring to his decision to resign after six seasons at O-G with a 109-35 record. “They just keep it going.”
Niekamp said, “There is a culture of basketball over there (Putnam County), not just in Ottawa. You don’t see that a lot anymore. Those kids know how to play. When they get to high school they know how to play. They’ve got something going there.”
Efforts to connect with Dave Sweet on Wednesday for this column were unsuccessful.
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