Unsung heroes are key

In order to make the state finals, a team needs to have great players and must be well coached.
It’s those players and their head coach who get announced before every game, who are the focus on the floor, whose names are called on the radio and whose pictures appear in the newspaper.
But it takes so many more people who help those familiar names and faces along the way, without whom a chance for a state championship would not be possible.
For the Fort Recovery High School girls basketball team, which will play No. 3 Anna in Friday’s Division III state semifinal round, success starts with the scouting report.
A variety of people are involved in its development, including junior varsity coach Chris Summers, freshman coach Lori Pottkotter and former FRHS girls coach Mark Hubbard.
Pottkotter, who ranks among the top 10 on the school’s all-time scoring list, is the do-everything coach. She acts as the team physician, helps prepare the scout team and had been involved as a coach in the junior high program before joining the high school staff.
Summers was the freshman coach under Jeff Roessner, and stepped up to the junior varsity position when Doug Bihn was hired for the varsity job. He handles most of the team’s film breakdown and prepares the scout team. And while the Indians were practicing last week he made the long drive to Lexington to see Africentric Early College play its regional semifinal game.
Senior Olivia Thien also credited Summers, her junior varsity coach for two seasons, for constant defensive drills that had her well-prepared to play at the varsity level.
And Hubbard, who coached the girls team for four seasons in the mid-’90s, has also been integral to the scouting process during the tournament run.
“He’s got a resume that goes on and on and on,” said Bihn. “Mark knows a lot about the game. … He does a great job. … When we get a scouting report from Mark, it’s like a Bible. It’s about that thick.”
The things those coaches learn on the scouting trips and through film breakdown get passed on the scout team, made up mostly of the junior varsity squad. The group, which includes Ericka Lennartz, Kelsey Fiely, Julie Kahlig, Sam Tobe, Janelle Schwieterman, Chelsea Pottkotter and Melissa Lochtefeld, is tasked with learning each opponents’ offense and defense.
Over the course of the last several weeks they’ve mimicked Tinora, Evergreen, No. 2 Lake, No. 6 Africentric and now No. 3 Anna, helping the varsity players get a grasp on what they would see on the floor during their tournament games.
“Against Africentric, with the press, they did a really, really nice job,” said senior Kendra Brunswick of the scout team. “It helped us a lot for the game I think. … We knew they would press, but we knew exactly how to break it.”
This week the scout team has grown, with players from the Fort Recovery boys team, including Jason Pottkotter, Ben Dilworth, Ryan Schoen, Derek Gaerke and Elijah Kahlig, joining the junior varsity girls. Chelsea Leuthold, a 2010 graduate, has also returned to practice against her former teammates.
Nicole Pottkotter, Kelsey Wuebker, Kinsey Wenning, Emily May, Alyssa Backman and Leuthold, all past players from recent years, have been among those supporting the team from the stands on the way to the state finals.
“They’re a big inspiration to us,” said junior Kylie Kahlig. “We see them in the crowds, and we’re like, ‘We’re doing it for them.’ We’re going to work hard and we’re going to do it for them because they didn’t have the chance and now we do.”
“Our team is reaping the benefits of the groundwork that has been laid the last three, four, five years,” added Bihn. “We’ve had some pretty good players come through this program. Unfortunately, those players haven’t gotten to experience what these kids are getting to experience. But they laid the groundwork and they’re a big part of where we’re at.”
Another person who has made a massive impact on the team is Al Summers, Chris’ father and Bihn’s varsity assistant.
Summers coached in the St. Henry boys program for decades, spending 28 years as the junior varsity coach and one leading the varsity. In his lone season at the helm, he led the Redskins to the state finals with his squad falling 64-58 to Fort Jennings in the state championship game.
It was during that season that his doctor informed him that he had an irregular heart rhythm, and recommended that he get out of coaching. So after the that 2000 state runner-up campaign, he stepped away.
Summers moved to the Columbus area, and thought coaching was out of his system. He was wrong.
When his son got his first coaching job, Al occasionally came to practice to help out. And after that first season, he offered his assistance to Bihn.
Even then, he didn’t expect to be doing too much.
“I was working full time in Columbus, so I figured it would be once every two weeks,” Summers said. “I came down here to help with a camp in June, and I was hooked. …
“I knew that if I wasn’t with this team this year I was going to feel miserable.”
So, he quit his job in order to devote his time to the Indians. Now he travels to and from Columbus — he’s trying to sell his house and move back to the area — and spends a lot of time at Chris’ house in between.
Many of his talks to the team this week, with the picture of the Schottenstein Center on the wall behind him, have been of the motivational variety. He has said on more than one occasion that not only does he believe the Indians are capable of winning a state championship, but that they will win it.
“Al’s been a shot in the arm for us,” said Bihn. “He has more experience than probably the rest of our staff combined. We love to have him around. …
“He knows the game in and out. He’s been a big plus for us. He donates a lot of time to this program, and we really appreciate it.”[[In-content Ad]]