A team that was able to 'check every box'

Jonah Rosenblum
Garfield's head coach Aaron Gilbert gesticulates during Wednesday's regional semifinal game against Waynedale.

CUYAHOGA FALLS — The Golden Bears were who they thought they were, to quote a legendary rant from former National Football League coach Dennis Green.

Garfield coach Aaron Gilbert talked before Wednesday's regional semifinal against Waynedale about how good the Golden Bears were from deep.

Sure enough, Waynedale hit 11 3-pointers in their 65-46 win over the G-Men.

Gilbert talked about how well the Golden Bears set screens to create opportunities for their shooters. Quite a few of those 11 3-pointers came courtesy of great screens.

"The thing that worried me going in that we had seen on film was they didn't really have bad quarters," Gilbert said. "We had a lot of film on them and didn't really see them go into any type of scoring drought and that was concerning where nobody was really able to or has been able really to get them into a drought."

Gilbert also talked about how Waynedale's defense gets in your face — and indeed, the Golden Bears were able to force 19 G-Men turnovers.

"It wasn't a super intense pressure defense," Gilbert said. "It was just they were in the way. They took advantage of when you made a lazy pass or when you got stuck trying to pivot or something and they just were able to shoot the gaps and do that type of stuff to us. It's a toughie. They're 24-1 for a reason."

But if the Golden Bears were who the G-Men thought they were, well, Garfield was what Gilbert hoped it would be this season.

"The message after the game was really, 'Don't let one game mess up the other 22,'" Gilbert said. "You can't overlook everything you did to get here. You need to realize there's only 16 teams out of the 200 left in Division III. You're one of those."

Returning plenty of talent from a district finalist and league runner-up a season ago, Garfield finished the 2020-2021 campaign with district and league titles. This season marked the G-Men's third district championship in the last eight years — and the first time under Gilbert that they have won a league and district title in the same season.

"Obviously, after the game, the locker room is there's lots of tears obviously," Gilbert said. "It wasn't along the lines of upset with how they played. It's upset that it's over."

For years, Gilbert has had his team create a list of goals prior to the season.

This year marked the first time they were able to check every single box.

"As I told them afterward, you're going to be able to come back to the school in five years, 10 years, 20 years," Gilbert said. "There's going to be numbers on the banner that you're going to be able to say, 'Hey, I was part of that team,' and there's going to be hardware in the trophy case that you're going to be able to say, 'I was a member of the team and helped do this.'"

Gilbert could see it coming in mid-January.

That's when, following a 3-2 start, in which Garfield's only losses came to perennial powers in Southeast and West Branch, the G-Men rattled off seven straight wins.

That included a particularly remarkable stretch:

  • W 58-42 @ Kirtland
  • W 51-49 @ Champion
  • W 66-34 @ Southeast

That gave Gilbert a hint of what was to come.

"That's when, at least personally, I started thinking we got a chance," Gilbert said. "Now, it's not a gimme, but we got a shot."

As the season went on, he saw juniors like Sarah Seaman and Jenna Smith take significant steps, with the latter averaging a double-double this season.

He saw role players step forward, with junior Caitlin Lutz and senior Trinity Williamson providing defensive tenacity and junior Sydney Seaman adding a shooter's touch.

As for sophomore Madeline Shirkey, Gilbert had to be encouraged by the way she shone late in the season, including 12 points in a district semifinal win over Rootstown and a pair of 3-pointers on the big stage of Cuyahoga Falls Wednesday night.

"She gave us that fourth scoring option," Gllbert said. "We knew that they were going to, like we were going to, focus on the main three scorers, and maybe it could be that other person that hit some shots, and tonight for a while Shirkey was able to hit those and help us make a little bit of a run."

And Grace Mills?

The senior played her best basketball down the stretch, with 24 points apiece in the district semifinal and district title games and 19 points against the Golden Bears.

To dive down deeper:

  • Rootstown: 24 points, 10-of-15 from the field, 3-of-7 from deep
  • Champion: 24 points, 6-of-11 from the field, 11-of-12 from the line
  • Waynedale: 19 points, 7-of-10 from the field, 5-of-6 from the line

So the Golden Bears were who they thought they were.

But the G-Men were who they hoped they would be.

"We were a good ball club," Gilbert said. "They just were the better ball club. I mean you can't take away anything from what they did and you can't take away anything from what we did."

Garfield's Sarah Seaman is doubled by Waynedale's Kelsey Wolfe (3) and Laney Murphy (5) Wednesday.