Indians, Patriots have become allies

Not too long ago they were enemies trying to beat each other on the basketball court.
Now, they’re practically teammates.
Since their season ended Feb. 5 against Homestead, three Jay County High School girls basketball players have been spending their afternoons across the state line, helping the Fort Recovery Indians prepare for the end of their regular season and the postseason tournament.
“When I was the boys coach we had some area (Midwest Athletic Conference) kids come in to help us get prepared because we didn’t think our (junior varsity) team could really get us ready,” said FRHS girls coach Brian Patch, who in 2010 took the Tribe boys to the regional championship game.
Patch wanted to bring in other players again this year, but with the rest of the conference still finishing the regular season that was not an option.
So he turned to the west.
JCHS senior Lyla Muhlenkamp — who is the school’s leader in 3-pointers in a game (12) and in a season (62) — is cousins with Fort Recovery senior Kendra Siefring. Muhenkamp’s teammate Ava Kunkler is related to FRHS senior boys basketball player Chase Bruns. A third Patriot senior, Abby Wendel, is a distant relative of Patch’s wife, Anne.
For Patch — his team meets Liberty-Benton in the Division III district semifinal at 8 p.m. tonight at Elida — bringing them in was an easy decision.
Wendel said it was the same for her and her teammates.
“It’s definitely different going from being rivals for four years to practicing with them to help them, but I think the three of us are all grateful for the opportunity to continue to play and to not have to give basketball up quite yet,” said Wendel, who will play college basketball for the Rio Grande RedStorm in southern Ohio.
Siefring agreed it was strange knowing that less than a month earlier, the two teams were in Portland battling it out in a hotly contested game, only to now be on the practice court with the same goal in mind.
Get better.
“It was a little awkward at first,” Siefring said. “Our coaches called them by their last names. Until after a few practices everyone got more used to them practically being on the team and calling them by their first names.”
Patch has said Wendel is one of the best all-around players his team has seen all season. Muhlenkamp is one of the better shooters, and Kunkler can be as tough a post player as they come.
“If you go against people like that it’s got to get you better,” Patch said. “Hopefully that will get us ready for a big game.”
The day before Jay County had its season end with a 62-39 loss to Homestead, Fort Recovery lost its second MAC game of the year to the New Knoxville Rangers 33-30.
Since the senior Patriot trio started helping out with their state-line rivals, the Indians have won four straight, including a 51-32 victory Saturday over Parkway for the team’s first sectional championship in four years.
It appears as if their help has been working.
“Having them at practice with us is a huge advantage,” Siefring said.
She added that practices have been far more heated to get them ready for a tough tournament run. Although the Patriot players, along with FRHS senior Jackson Hobbs, have been emulating the opposing team’s offense and defensive schemes, there has been a slight ulterior motive for wanting to play better than the new “scout” team.
“Practices are more intense, I think partly because we don’t want to lose to the Jay County girls again,” Siefring joked.
On the court, it’s business. Wendel and her teammates have played with the same intensity they have all season. They have often given the Indians advice and suggestions on different ways to execute, which Patch said is nice to have coming from a peer rather than a coach.
“From our kids’ standpoint they respect those three,” Patch said. “As a coach that shows a lot about those three and their character. Tells about their parents and the job they did that they’re willing to help out an opponent.
“Not too many would be willing to do that.”
Off of it, there are friendships budding that may not have before as rivals the last four years. On a few occasions, some of them — both Indians and Patriots — have stayed after practice to chat and continue to work on their game.
“It’s nice to see that interaction with the kids,” Patch said.
Not too long ago, they were rivals.
Now, they’re allies.