Milestone men

Jay Houck did it with a free throw on the road.

Micaiah Cox hit a charity toss at home.

Jared Grabau’s wasn’t as easy. He banked a jump shot off the backboard for the milestone.

Prior to this season, only 24 players in The Commercial Review’s coverage area had reached 1,000 career points.

There were three this season; one each from Jay County (Houck), Fort Recovery (Cox) and South Adams (Grabau) high schools.

“It’s pretty cool, because obviously there’s been a lot of great players to come through here,” said Houck, a JCHS senior who got his 1,000th point against Southern Wells on Jan. 21. “I grew up watching a lot of great players. It gives you a sense of accomplishment. It is pretty cool to do that.”

Houck is just the third player in JCHS history to reach the mark. Danny Ferrell was the first, and the Brock McFarland, a 2013 graduate who holds the school record for career points with 1,177, is the other.

“I had the pleasure of coaching (Houck) for two years,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg. Craig Teagle coached Houck for his first two seasons as a Patriot. “He has been our go-to guy the last few years. He deserved to be the 1,000-point scorer and I was hoping he was going to break the record.”

An ankle injury late in the season and foul trouble limited his minutes, and he fell short of breaking McFarland’s mark.

“It would have been cool to be the all-time leader,” said Houck, who finished third in school history with 1,128 points. “But I wanted to just win and have fun with my teammates.

“Getting it would have been cool but it wasn’t my main priority.”

Houck played considerable minutes as a freshman on a team that included Jacob Schlosser, Zach Fullenkamp and Trey Teagle. He averaged nearly 5.9 points per game. As a sophomore, his scoring average increased to 10.8 points per game, and he was the Patriots’ second-leading scorer behind Adam Dirksen’s 11.6 PPG and ahead of Justin Dirksen’s 7.8.

The following year, it became his team. He began the season outside the top 40 in terms of career scoring, but slowly picked them off as the year went on. He averaged 15.8 points per game and ended the season 12th school’s career points list.

“It’s pretty cool to know where my game has gotten to pass that many people,” he said in March 2016.

As Houck notched his 1,000th point in January, he didn’t know how close he was. He didn’t check the newspaper and no one told him. And when he sank the milestone hoop, Krieg called a time out and presented him with a commemorative ball and he was recognized for the feat.

It’s a position he never imagined he would find himself as his career came to a close.

“Didn’t expect to play at all freshman year,” said Houck, who has no plans of playing in college. “That was huge. Big learning experience playing with a bunch of older guys.

“It propelled me to have the career I did. As my career progressed I just wanted to get better.”

Unlike Houck, Cox knew he was approaching 1,000 points but didn’t think he was going to reach it. He was 78 points away with three regular season games to play while averaging about 15 points per game.

But he scored 14 in a loss to Coldwater on Feb. 11, recorded a career-high 33 in a marathon four-overtime win over Minster on Feb. 17 and tallied 31 points — a free throw for his final point put him at 1,000 — in the regular-season finale against McComb the following day.

“It was spectacular,” said Cox, who is the 16th player in FRHS history to reach the plateau. He reached it at Fort Site Fieldhouse in front of a home crowd, which he said went crazy. His mother cried. He cried too.

“It means a lot,” he said. “Fort Recovery has had a great program in history, and recently, for basketball. It means a lot to me to be in that category.”

Grabau’s 1,000th point was a little more challenging. Fifty seconds into the fourth quarter Feb. 20 in Rockford, Ohio, against the Parkway Panthers, Grabau got the ball near the left block, spun clockwise and banked a 12-footer off the window for his final hoop on a 12-point night.

“It was exhilarating,” Grabau, who finished his career with 1,051 points, said after the game. “I was happy. All the working, the practicing just paid off. It felt great to finally get a major accomplishment out of it.”

South Adams coach Andy Brown touted the work Grabau put in during practice to become the eighth player in Starfire history to reach 1,000 points. Houck’s coaches (Teagle and Krieg) as well as Cox’s (Brian Patch and Chris Guggenbiller) can say the same for their respective players.

It’s the work outside of the games perfecting their craft which has helped each player etch themselves into school history.

“Those things sound simple to some people,” Brown said in Rockford. “That’s where you see players get to the point (Grabau’s) at. It’s the time nobody sees you.”

This year, three local basketball players reached career scoring milestones.

Who’s next?