Boys Basketball: Lorain County League leads way in all-district selections

Fans tend to overlook the Lorain County League when discussing the best basketball conferences in Northeast Ohio. The Ohio Prep Sports Media Association voters certainly didn't. Two LCL coaches, Brookside's Larry Babics and Keystone's Jeff Holzhauer, picked up Coach of the Year honors and four players from LCL teams were among the seven Lorain County players named to the first team Tuesday when the OPSMA announced the Northeast Lakes all-district teams. Babics shared the Division IV award with Cleveland Central Catholic's Michael Duncan after leading Brookside to a share of its fourth consecutive LCL title.Cardinals junior Mason Waechter earned first-team honors in Division IV after averaging 19.9 points, 9.7 rebounds and almost three 3-pointers a game. "He's developed from being a corner shooter to really doing everything," Babics said. "He also anchors our defense. And he's continually improving. He's going to be scary good next year."Babics deflected much of the attention from his award to his staff, led by longtime assistants Brian Kelley and Sharod Brown."Those coaches awards should really just say 'Brookside,'" Babics said. "Because you're only as good as the guys you work with and the kids that play for you."We have it really, really good at Brookside, the support we get and the stuff that is given to us to help our kids and put them in the best situations. I don't go out there and make rebounds or score. I'm just really fortunate to have really good people around me."Holzhauer was lucky enough to have two first-team all-district players, as junior Liam Goran and sophomore Colt Cowling made the Division V first team. Cowling, who averaged 23.5 points, and Goran, who averaged 20.3, were the only pair of 20-point scorers on one team in the district. "They aren't just good basketball players because they're good athletes. They are good basketball players because they work their tail off at it," Holzhauer said. Holzhauer said there was never any infighting or attempts at stat padding between Goran and Cowling as they helped lead Keystone to an 18-5 record and a share of the LCL title alongside Brookside. "Those are the two easiest kids in the gym to coach," Holzhauer said. "They play off of each other, they share the ball and support one another. They are fantastic."Everyone on the outside wants to ask me, 'Who's better, Colt or Liam?' They don't care and I don't care. They both want to be the best players they can be every single night and they do it so well together." Like Babics, Holzhauer credits his staff, which includes former Keystone coach Greg Morgan and longtime assistants Chad Elliott and Chad Whitacre, with helping him earn his award. "It's not just me, our whole staff does a great job and does it for all the right reasons," Holzhauer said. "I tell the kids you only get coach of the year awards when you have good players. It's a testament to the attitude and the character of the kids you coach."Oberlin's Carmello Williams also represented the LCL on the first team. He was picked in Division VI after averaging 15.4 points. Columbia had a pair of Division VI second-team choices in Logan Menge and Dylan Fisher. Oberlin's Korrie Freeman was also on the D-VI second team. Holzhauer, who is also Keystone's athletic director, said many times people don't realize how much talent there is in the LCL because there is a tendency to compare the teams to bigger Division I-III programs. "The LC8 is what it is. If you look at Lorain County and surrounding areas, we're the small-school conference. That's who we are," Holzhauer said. "Everyone wants to compare us to the (Southwestern Conference) or (Cleveland West Conference) or whatever. We're not those because we are smaller schools."Look, Columbia was double overtime away from knocking off the No. 2 seed and playing for a district championship. Oberlin had no problem at all making it to a district final. I hope Keystone is playing for a district title in Division V. Brookside and Black River are both in the district semifinals. Our league is a very good league in that small-school range. For the size of the schools and the different leagues our teams are competing against, we are far superior to many of them and people in our area don't realize that."Avon junior Joey Ziegler, who averaged 15 points, was the county's lone Division II first-team selection.Open Door junior Brayden Bendik, who led the county in scoring with 24.4 points, was a first-team pick in Division VI. Lake Ridge Academy's Riley Kolbay (18.4 ppg) earned first-team honors in Division VII. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.