I love these early season College Tournaments

I love these early season College Basketball tournaments. Good games to watch, fun teams, passionate fans. The one thing I love about these tournaments is that the Coaches get to turn in their Suits for Polo style shirts. I've been to the tournaments in Orlando, Charleston, Maui and San Juan. They were alot of fun to watch. Especially going to Maui and San Juan the last two years. The people in Maui were so nice to us when Dayton lost to Baylor last year. They were telling Dad and I how much they were pulling for the Flyers, who were the tournament underdog. When we were in San Juan over the previous weekend, we stayed at the same hotel as every team and some of their fans. It was alot of fun. The UCONN fans were so nice to the Dayton fans. Got to meet alot of Coaches and players and it was a grand time.

It would be hard...

We all remember when Don Shula got the best of David Shula twice in 1994-95. Last night, Rick Pitino coached against his son Richard. Louisville took on Minnesota. My Dad Ken Schlater, is the best basketball coach to never coach a game at the Varsity level of High School Basketball. I've never been a head coach at any level in my lifetime and I currently have no plans of becoming a coach. I will say that it would be difficult to coach in a Basketball game against my Dad. His team would probably beat my team.

1999-2000 Lehman Cavaliers Basketball

Five years later at this time, during my senior year, a new bunch began a 5 month journey. The 1999-2000 Lehman Cavaliers began preps for Jerry Fries second season at the helm. That team featured 7 seniors: Ryan Ratermann, Tony Cianciolo, Tony Staley, Jake Sinclair, Dave Hodapp, Sam Mikolajewski and Myself. 4 juniors, Matt Sargeant, Bill Mertz, Brad Hampshire and Derrick Orlik. One sophomore Jimmy Dembski. We began with scrimmages at Bluffton and Columbus Grove and wouldn’t you know it, the one who lead the team in field goal percentage was yours truly 2/3 including a buzzer beating 3 against Columbus Grove. When I hit that 3, I was so excited. I could not contain myself and I felt like a part of the team right then. Everyone was so happy for me. It was the 1st 3 pointer I ever hit in a game. To lead the team in field goal percentage in the preseason after 2 preseason games, I was honored to have that distinction. I remember our first game against Franklin Monroe, taking the floor for the first time and hearing Lehman’s fight song. I had the Kentucky fan song playing in my head every time I took the court for warm-ups. We won that game and I was glad it was a close game, because I would have gotten nervous playing in my first Varsity game. We played Botkins on the road in our next game, they were coming off a trip to the Regional finals and gave them a game through 3 ½ quarters. Late in the 4th quarter, we were down by 20 and I was hoping to get in the game, but it was not to be. I was very upset that I did not play in that game, but I don’t blame coach Fries 15 years later. There were other games I should have played in, but did and did not.

At this time in 1994-95

It was at this time in 1994-95. My fellow classmates and I were getting ready for basketball season. This was the first time playing basketball when the games counted. Our coaches were Jeff Wagner and Jim Henning. The guys on that team were Jamie Westerheide, Ryan Ratermann, Beau Sweigart, Jarrod Stewart, Matt Zimmerman, David Hodapp, Paul Webster, Tony Meyer, Tony Henning, Joe Schmeising, Jake Sinclair, Justin Frantz and myself. I remember tryouts were tough, Mikan Drills, laps, 8:00-9:30 AM practices on Saturday’s. Jeff and Jim made practices fun. At the end of the tryouts, Coach Wagner had us go behind the curtain on stage. I remember sitting in between Dave and Matt on the stage and Coach Wagner said to us: “this is a basketball team, you guys are my team”. Dave said, “congrats Luke, you made the team”. I was ecstatic. I was so excited I could not wait to tell my Dad when I got to the car and I remember Matt Zimmerman called our house that night to see how excited Mom and Dad were for me. I remember a few days later, I was at a girls game or a meet the team night. My history teacher was in attendance and he informed me saying “just because your on the basketball team does not mean you can slack off in the classroom”. We played Versailles in our first game on the road. At a lot of our road games, we had to sit on stages. We went 0-13 that year. There were a couple games we should have won. I do think we should have beat Anna, who beat us by 4 and should have beat Piqua Catholic the first time we played them. I was the only one on the team that did not score, however I had a more important job to do, just like any other 12th man; cheering on his teammates. I was the Most Spirited award winner for the 1994-95 Holy Angels Wings. Making the 7th grade basketball team is one of my proudest athletic achievements. I am thankful for the opportunity that Jeff and Jim gave me.

10 and 20 years ago at this time in Bengals History

It was at this time in 2004. The Bengals were looking for their 2nd Victory of the season. They were making their 1st Monday Night Football appearance in 15 years. They took on the Denver Broncos. The Bengals did not disappoint. Led by Chad Johnson, Deltha O'Neal and Tory James, the Bengals upset the Broncos 23-10. O'Neal and James intercepted passes from Jake Plummer and Johnson caught a 50 year TD in the first quarter. In 1994, the Bengals headed to Seattle. Jeff Blake was making his 2nd Career start and the Bengals would rely on the right foot of Doug Pelfrey to give them their first victory of the season. The game went into overtime and Blake connected with Darnay Scott for 76 yards to set up Pelfrey's game winning field goal. Jeff Blake would throw a pretty deep ball. His long ball was awesome, off the charts awesome.