Clay’s junior cagers have their hopes set on next year

By: 
J. Patrick Eaken

        Clay boys basketball finished the season 6-17, but it was a huge improvement from the previous season that saw the Eagles get three wins.
        The Eagles went from losing games by an average of 20 points last year to six points this year. Coach David Rodriguez says his team was in a lot of games in the fourth quarter, but “just couldn’t get over the hump yet.”
        Take, for instance, the two losses to Three Rivers Athletic Conference foe St. Francis — 43-39 and 59-57.
        “The St. Francis game you just want to look at it and shake their hand and tell them they did a good job, but we did everything we could to win the game,” Rodriguez said.
        The second game at Clay’s Harold Potter Field House was winnable, thanks to the effort of 6-foot-7 junior center Frank Waganfeald, a first team Alan Miller Jewelers All-Press selection who averaged 13.9 points and nine rebounds.
        “We were up one at half, got down 11 and we came all the way back and they fouled my big guy, who was 7-for-7 from the free throw line, with no time on the clock and he missed the first free throw to send us into overtime,” Rodriguez said. “He had 24 (points) and 13 (rebounds), too, and he was the best player on the court that night. You can’t simulate that. Like I told them, ‘You know, that didn’t lose the game at all.’”
        Waganfeald and junior forward Noah Hagdohl, who is listed at 6-4 but Rodriguez says plays more like 6-6, were the top players on the court this year. Hagdohl, who averaged 12.2 points and 5.3 rebounds, was third team All-Press but Rodriguez says he has uncanny basketball talent. Both will return as seniors next year.
        “Frank did well — he is the most dominant player on the team but he’s not the best player on the team. Noah Hagdohl was the best player on our team,” Rodriguez said. “Since he got back from an injury, he averaged 16.5 points and five rebounds a game. Frank still gets all the attention and he’s the best big man in the area, hands down. I’m not saying that because he’s my player. At the end of the day, what difference is it to me? Hagdohl is a 6-6 wing who can go high-low all game long. They play really well together.”
        However, building a program to compete in the TRAC is not easy.
        “We have a really good junior class, and the seniors meshed in well, but this junior class went 19-3 and won the TRAC their freshman year without Frank. So, they know about winning,” Rodriguez said.
        “We’ve just got to find the other part of it, and that is depth. I’ve got a freshman guard coming up who is pretty good, got some sophomores who are going to fill in nice next year, and it’s always about what’s coming in behind you. I can’t reload like St. John’s, but whatever is coming behind them, we’ll find it next year. We’ve been working on these guys all year and they’re coming. Me, I’m trying to bring the interest back to Oregon. It’s not easy.”
        Another positive he saw this year was the players meshed off the court, which is huge for a team to be successful.
        “These kids, I’ll be honest, I’ve been coaching for 14 years, and this is probably the best group of kids that I’ve had. I had some good kids at Bowsher, but I was never the head coach (under his father-in-law Joe Guerrero). There is just something special about this group of kids — I don’t know what it is. It may not be anything, but the way that they were so fun to coach, and they were still locked in,” Rodriguez said.
        “Last year sucked, kind of. The writing was on the wall and we wanted the season to be over with. These kids, man, they are having sleepovers, and I’m not even organizing them. They were organizing them, and the feedback you get from them — the practices are positive and fun.”
 
Celebrating some big wins
        There were some big wins this year, like defeating Western Buckeye League team Elida on the road, 69-61 in overtime.
        “That was a good win,” Rodriguez said. “It was one of those where we had a shot to win the game (in regulation), but we missed it, but we dominated in overtime. It’s one of those environments you go into, and it’s a good team bonding thing. You just go, and we dropped off some of the younger kids, we went out and got something to eat and we all hung out.”
        In the next to last regular season game, Clay defeated Ottawa Hills 47-44, they won their own holiday tournament by defeating Perkins 40-27 and Bowsher 49-42 and later celebrated a 52-42 home victory over TRAC foe Whitmer. The stress came off when Clay was up 35-11 over Swanton at halftime and the Eagles cruised to a 69-36 win.
        But learning how to win in the TRAC is not easy.
        “Findlay beat us by eight (62-54), but they got a dunk at the end of the game, with no time on the clock, which is kind of bush league to me,” Rodriguez said. “We had missed about four layups, but we cut it to within two with about a minute and a half to go, then they knocked down free throws.
        “St. John’s and St. Francis, we had beat. We beat Whitmer by 10 and then we had a 10-point lead earlier in the year before we were healthy against Whitmer and blew the lead (48-42). The first time we played St. Francis we lost by four and we were 9-for-22 from the free throw line at the beginning of the year,” Rodriguez continued.
        “We had Central, and we were down 20 to Central and we had a three with two minutes to go to cut it to within four and that was at Central (52-41 Clay loss) — it takes you forever to get warmed up there because of that depth perception thing.
        “It’s just a crawl before you walk type of thing. Lima (Senior) is the only team this year that I would have to say we didn’t have a shot from the start,” added Rodriguez.
        There were a couple non-league losses to good teams that were winnable, too. Division III regional finalist and Northwest Ohio Athletic League champion Evergreen downed Clay 62-52 and Northern Lakes League champion Perrysburg defeated the Eagles, 66-52.
        “We got healthy. We were at the point where we lost at Evergreen and we shoot the ball 14 more times than they do, but it just didn’t fall. But I had two guys score 21 points,” Rodriguez said. “I made a couple mistakes coaching, too, and you want the kids in better situations which you kind of beat yourself up over.
        “All the other games, even the Perrysburg loss, it may look like (a blowout), but they made free throws at the end of the game. We had Perrysburg beat at one point. They’ve got a lot of good players, and I put my bench guys in the last 50 seconds because we just ran out of gas.
        “That was one of our first games when we had a couple guys who were injured come back and I didn’t want to wear them out, and it wasn’t that big of a deal. I knew the writing was on the wall — I’d rather get them out and try to get them rested. We were down, but we had opportunities in that game, too. If people look at the scores, it’s not an indicator of the actual game.”
 

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