By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

With the longest high school basketball season in Portage County history, it feels strange that the spring sports season officially begins on Saturday.

The Rootstown girls basketball team’s run to the Division VI state championship game meant that the Rovers’ season spanned an incredible 141 days.

Before we get into the final days of the Rovers’ season, let’s start with the start of spring sports.

SPRING TEAM PREVIEWS

Portate Sports is currently working to collect information for the creation of all of the spring sports team previews.

Be looking for those preview stories over the next week or so.

BASEBALL HISTORY

As we head into the 2025 season, here is a look at the all-time career program wins for each Portage County school:

• Field 762-470-1
• Crestwood 734-668
• Mogadore 694-720-8
• Southeast 673-712-1
• Rootstown 664-570
• Kent Rosevelt 641-718-1
• Garfield 583-561-2
• Aurora 558-458
• Streetsboro 544-636
• Windham 523-452
• Ravenna 522-723-5
• Waterloo 432-730-2

Here is a look at the all-time career coaching wins in Portage County history:

• Larry Wiles, Field (1968-98), 456
• Bob Merritt, Crestwood (1982-2010), 352
• Dave Clegg, Southeast (1983-2018), 319
• Mike Haney, Kent Roosevelt (2002-present), 294
• Mark Knopick (1990-99; 2013-16), 233
• Joe Peterson, Field (2013-present), 220
• Chris Scisciani, Streetsboro (2006-present), 195
• Keith Waesch, Rootstown (2004-07, 2017-present), 185
• John Cravens, Mogadore (1975-76 and 1990-2002), 182
• Mike Paes, Garfield (2016-present), 125

SOFTBALL HISTORY

As we head into the 2025 season, here is a look at the all-time career program wins for each Portage County school:

• Field 728-273-1
• Southeast 535-383
• Kent Roosevlet 520-573
• Garfield 500-302
• Mogadore 496-579
• Rootstown 493-392
• Crestwood 488-381
• Waterloo 448-351
• Aurora 447-324
• Windham 305-461
• Streetsboro 279-569-2
• Ravenna 267-736

Here is a look at the all-time career coaching wins in Portage County history:

• Dave Dubinsky, Southeast (1982-2014), 458
• Dave Mullenix, Rootstown (1984-2012), 382
• Beth Dyer, Field (2006-present), 351
• Brenda Flarida, Waterloo (1997-present), 321
• Tom Pollock, Mogadore (2001-15, 2017-18), 226
• Tina Faulhaber, Garfield (2008-present), 215
• Leroy Moore, Crestwood (2000-04 and 2018-23) and Streetsboro (2024-present), 193
• Sam Petrash, Aurora (2018-present), 105
• Tiffany McCoy, Kent Roosevelt (1980-95), 104

A DAY IN DAYTON

Like so many others, the Rootstown girls basketball team’s state championship game last Saturday was more than just a game.

It is now a special memory.

One that I got to share with my family.

As she has throughout the season, our oldest daughter Paisley was alongside for photo coverage, and we were joined on our ride southwest by my older sister Nicole and her daughter Reagan.

Spending 7 hours in the car together with conversation and laughter.

Sharing a historic game together.

It was fun.

Professionally, sharing the coverage with Paisley, for a game of that magnitude inside an arena of that size, was a memory her and I will both remember forever.

Also, being able to sit next to good friend Jonah Rosenblum, from the Record-Courier, was also special.

This is where the Rootstown girls basketball team’s tournament run has layers.

Of course, the wins and the the history were amazing in their own respective ways.

But I know we were not the only family that it created an entire set of memories that will always be nostalgic stories.

Thank you, Rootstown.

ROSES FOR YOU

In a very heartfelt gesture, longtime Rootstown statistician Ruth Pickens, who is a Rootstown graduate and former Rovers basketball player, was presented with a special delivery before tipoff last Saturday.

As the Rover girls were preparing to play in the biggest game of their lives, they still were thinking of others.

Amidst the pressure, game planning, warmups, stretching, and everything you could imagine is on a full plate in preparation for a state final, they still were able to find a minute to celebrate Pickens.

About 40 minutes before tipoff, the Rootstown girls lined up along the sideline in front of where Pickens was stationed at the scorer’s table, and each player handed off a white rose to Pickens.

Sophomore Sophi Smith then presented Pickens with a framed set of pictures that included a message and was signed by the entire team.

CHEER UP

New to the Portage Sports High School Basketball All-Star Games this year will be the inclusion of high school cheerleaders from around Portage County.

We are excited to announce the following cheerleaders will be participating in both the girls and boys All-Star games, which will be hosted by Ravenna High School on Friday, April 18, with a 5:45 p.m. start:

• Aurora’s Vanessa Zembala and Katelyn Paczak
• Crestwood’s Audrey Julian and Sarah Lame
• Field’s Gianna Barbetta and Morgan Barber
• Garfield’s Jocelyn Sommer and Sammie Whitlow
• Kent Roosevelt’s Maddie Booher and Katelyn Gumm
• Mogadore’s Haylie Stuart and Sophia DeWitt
• Ravenna’s Hannah Stepic and Kaitlynne Arus
• Rootstown’s Anna Burke and Kayla Nicholas
• Southeast’s Julia Frick
• Streetsboro’s Harmony Brown and Mia Perez
• Waterloo’s Allie Liar and Olivia Newkirk

As a small side note, Windham communicated to us that they would be unable to send cheer team representatives to the game.

A LITTLE BIT OF HEART

In coordinating the cover story of the first edition of the Portage Sports magazine, I conducted two interviews with Southeast High School graduate and two-time Paralympian Jenna Fesemyer.

The second interview, which was done at Southeast in February, also included the photoshoot to go with the story.

I had asked Fesemyer to bring some of her most memorable medals with her and after a few feature photos, I asked her to hold her medals so that I could get a close-up photo of them.

Nothing was planned other than for her to hold them in a way that held them steady and eliminated any glare.

Just after taking the photo, I realized that Fesemyer’s hands naturally formed the shape of a heart.

I said to her, “Jenna, you have to see this.”

I flipped the camera around for her to see.

She saw the same thing I did, and we both smiled.

A simple picture, without the plan to create what she did, which made it all the more special.

STEALS RECORD FOR EADER

Field Falcons senior Grady Eader recently closed out his basketball career.

It turned out to be a record-setting career for the University of Mount Union baseball commit.

At the team’s postseason team banquet dinner, longtime statistician Ellen Arena announced that Eader had set the career steals record with 110.

My curiosity wonders if he will finish his basketball or baseball career with more steals?

COLLEGE SIGNINGS

•    Sophia Wood, Waterloo High School girls soccer, Muskingum University
•    Cole Christy, Kent Roosevelt boys soccer, Baldwin Wallace University
•    Cassidy Singer, Kent Roosevelt girls lacrosse, Westminster University

A FIRST IN AURORA

The 2025 spring season will be historic for Aurora.

For the first time in school history, the Greenmen have a varsity boys lacrosse team.

Aurora played the 2024 spring season as a club sport, but the program was officially approved for varsity status by the school board.