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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2010 > March > 08
Monday, March 8, 2010
Ottoville girls have town rockin’
OTTOVILLE — I know I missed one hell of a party last Saturday night.
I still saw the remnants of it Monday afternoon when I drove through Ottoville, my hometown up in Putnam County.
Streamers of toilet paper still hung from the blinking traffic light where US 224 makes a turn into the heart of our small town of some 875 people. Other streamers were still caught on the roof overhang of Twisters ice cream shop a block away.
I’m told, Ronnie Miller, the mayor of the town, was out early Sunday morning taking on a job that rivals snow removal after a mid-winter blizzard. He picked up trash bag after trash bag after trash bag of the celebratory TP. There was so much of it, it had looked like banks of snow in front of the businesses and bars that line the main drag through town.
An even more telling sign of just how “festive” things got could been seen behind the three main saloons in town Monday. The dumpsters that service Wannemacher’s Tavern, Millie’s and the Dew Drop Inn were overflowing with empty Budweiser and Bud Light beer cases.
And in the front window of Midwest Sportswear, they already have a gold t-shirt on display that reads “Sweet Sixteen.”
Our high school girls basketball team — the Ottoville Lady Green — is 22-0, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press’s final Division IV poll and this Thursday plays Fort Loramie in a Sweet Sixteen match-up at Springfield High School.
Last Thursday night, the Lady Green edged the No. 9 team in the state, Delphos Jefferson, 56-50 in two overtimes. Saturday night they topped No. 4 Kalida by one point to win the district crown.
And that has the town is in a tizzy.
High school basketball is huge here. The Ottoville Big Green — first the boys, now the girls — have been the focal point of this community for more than 80 years.
Six Ottoville teams have gone to state. Two of them were boys’ teams — the 1937 Big Green coached by my granddad L.W. Heckman and the 1978 team. Four girls teams have gone. None have taken the state crown.
Everyone is hoping this may be the year.
I love this time of year. Sure the NCAA Tournament holds everyone spellbound, but nothing tugs at your heart like the high school basketball tournaments. Everybody has a chance, even little towns like mine.
Vic Fishbach, Bill Wannemacher and a lot of other people in Ottoville are flying the school flag from their porches. Big Green banners line the main streets and many of the store fronts bear their own messages:
“We are banking on a victory” is painted across the windows of the Ottoville Bank.
“Nail down a victory” is the window message at the Ottoville Lumber Company.
At the telephone company its: “Ring in a victory.”
There are signs in front of the fire station, the bars and the school.
And then there’s the one in the window of the Ottoville Hardware store:
“If you dream it, you can achieve it….Lady Green basketball.”
They’re dreaming big in Ottoville right now. I’m hoping there are parties again this weekend and again next weekend after the girls state tournament.
If I’m lucky, I’ll make one.
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