When Ryan Bowen took over as head boys basketball coach at Lake, he knew he had his work cut out for him.

Lake sophomore guard Kurt McKee. (Press photo by Scott Grau)

The Flyers were picked to finish dead last in the SLL, yet again. The Flyers were coming off several dreadful seasons (Lake finished 4-17 in 2009 and 3-18 in 2010) and entered the season with a 13-game losing streak.

Faced with this tumultuous task of turning around a long suffering program, the 1992 Lake graduate never lost hope and started his rebuilding process by changing the culture in his alma mater’s locker room.

“Changing the culture,” said Bowen “was our biggest challenge. It’s not as easy as everybody says, but I have great a group of guys on my staff from seventh grade on up that all believe in the same thing.”

Not only has Bowen changed the culture, his varsity team sits at 8-6 (4-3 SLL), plus Lake has worked miracles at the lower levels and has resurrected the entire program.

“We’ve had a lot of success at our junior high levels this year. Our seventh grade is 8-0. Our eighth grade is 7-1. Not to mention, our freshman team is 14-0, and our jayvees are 10-4. All it took was letting everyone know that losing was unacceptable and they’re starting to buy into that,” Bowen said.

Bowen’s presence has been felt throughout the entire community and he has seen peak amounts of interest among younger kids. Bowen even has Lake’s fifth and sixth grade teams running his run-and-gun style offense and it has paid off. As of last week, Lake’s fifth grade team, which plays in a league in Maumee, sat on top at 9-1.

Lake junior Rashad Smith talks with Coach Ryan Bowen. (Press photo by Scott Grau)

Bowen said all of this success at the lower levels has made his job easier and has only added to his love for coaching.

“I love it. It’s a great group of kids and they are excited to play basketball. The community has been very supportive and I want to make sure that my coaching staff and I can show our faces at as many games as we can to make the kids more comfortable and excited to play the game in the future.”

Bowen credits the community and his coaching staff for success at the lower levels, but credits his players’ attitudes for Lake’s success at the varsity level.

“We as coaches made a point that we weren’t going to teach the kids how to win this year, but we were going to teach them how to be great teammates and winning would take care of itself. This is our band of brothers. We’re together from November to March and the kids have bought into that. It makes me proud to see our guys starting to spend more time together outside the gym.”

Bowen’s “Band of Brothers” have played well as a team, and two weeks ago knocked off Genoa and Eastwood in back-to-back games — something that hadn’t been done in ten years at Lake.

“That feat was a big monkey off the back of our program,” Bowen said.

A big part of Lake’s success this season has been 5-foot-10 junior guard Rashad Smith. Smith, who is averaging 17.2 points, is fighting for the scoring lead in the SLL with Elmwood’s T.J. Waldock (18 points).

“He’s had some big games for us,” said Bowen.  “He’s had a 33 point game, a 28, a couple 24 point games. The kid can flat out shoot. If you get him in space, he will knock down shots. He’s not afraid to pull the trigger at any spot and handles the ball well.”

Coach Bowen said Smith has been a model for the younger kids in the program because he is so dedicated to basketball.

Lake senior guard Ahmad Ismail. (Press photo by Scott Grau)

“Rashad only plays basketball. He plays a lot of AAU and commits himself in the offseason to go to a lot of camps. He’s an example of why we want our younger kids to start playing AAU Basketball. Rashad is a special player, there’s just no doubt about it.”

Smith has been gaining a lot of attention from opposing defenses, only opening things up for Lake’s other scorers.

The Flyers, who are averaging a league best 66 points, have received consistent scoring from another junior, 6-3 swingman Josh Tantari.

“Josh is about as athletic as you are going to find in the whole league,” said Bowen. “He’s very fast off the dribble and stays active on the boards.”

Two weeks ago in an 83-64 win over Genoa, Tantari (13 points, six rebounds per game) recorded a double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing 11 boards.

The Flyers, who have gone 2-23 in league play the last two years, are hoping Tantari and Smith can guide them to a fantastic finish in their final five games before tournament play.

“We’re confident we can win all of our games before tournament time,” said Bowen.

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