Community supports Bulldogs

AKRON>>Just minutes before taking the court for the first time in warm ups, Olmsted Falls head coach Chris DeLisio shot a smirk to senior Braden Galaska before his eyes panned out over a sea of blue and gold filling James A. Rhodes Arena some 40 miles away from home. Rocking the arena at the University of Akron, fans drove over an hour from home to not just show support for the Bulldogs, but with a belief in what the team had already accomplished.

By the time Olmsted Falls was ready to take the court for tipoff, the Bulldogs’ side of the court was packed two decks full to see the team come out and fight for a spot in the Division I regional final game. More over, behind the Bulldogs second half net was another two decks of students dressed in all white ready to roar for its school. After days of anticipation from one of the biggest wins in program history, Olmsted Falls came out and brought the fight to the Fighting Irish and showed just why the Bulldogs belonged. “It was a really great feeling, we have a great community and they support us a ton,” Galaska said. “We appreciate that and we can’t thank them enough.” Opening the game up with a 16-0 run that made Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary think twice, all of the confidence that had flowed in the days after toppling state ranked Lorain was on display. “I don’t think they were ready for us to punch them in the mouth like that,” senior Eric Hanna said. “We were hitting all of our shots mostly. Started off on a nice run.” Knowing the community would come out and show support, it was Galaska and the seniors that fed off the booming cheers echoing thought the JAR that helped solidify Olmsted Falls’ place on the big stage. “We strive off of that every game, we always ball pressure and press, high energy level from the start,” Galaska said. “We knocked down a couple of shots, we felt good after the first quarter and then they started pressuring us.” Peering up at the Jumbotron above the court, the Bulldogs knew the hot shooting to open the game had paid off early, but didn’t care how until the game was in hand. Not letting the moment and the lead be more than it was, Hanna said the team just wanted to stay confident no matter the lead with a tall task at hand of controlling another stateranked team. “It was a good feeling (being up 16), a good start,” Hanna said. “We weren’t feeling too overconfident because we had a lot of game to be played.” In the end, the game didn’t fall the way the Olmsted Falls players and fans had hoped with so much on the line. But for five days, the Bulldogs’ faithful were alive with pride and the hope of what might be with a senior class of eight that have been shining examples of the Olmsted Falls way on and off the court. “I just got done telling them how proud I was of them and how much they’ve done for our program,” DeLisio said. “You talk about guys across the board who it doesn’t matter if it’s guys who play 30 minutes a night or if they play 0 minutes a night, we have bunch of seniors that are just great teammates and great kids who have done so much for our culture of basketball program as far as the way things should be and in addition to that just representing the community so well. “These three guys, the other five seniors and all of our team, they’re good basketball players, they’re even better kids. A lot to be proud of as a coach.”