Elyria Sports Hall of Fame: Open Door's boys basketball team exceeded expectations ... well, not everyone's ... with magical trip to final four in 2003

Area basketball fans remember the 2003 Open Door boys basketball team for its unexpected run to the Division IV state semifinals. For Tony Madalone, who was the captain of that Patriots team, their success was anything but unexpected. "I was a little bit different than everybody because I always believed it," Madalone said. "I think everyone thought I was crazy but I had the date March 22, which was the state finals, written on my shoes at the start of the season, so everyday I saw that date. So obviously there was some belief that we could do it."While Open Door eventually fell two days short of playing on the date Madalone had marked on his calendar — and his shoes — losing 72-47 to Maria Stein Marion Local in the state semifinals, the Patriots' tournament run provided them with a lifetime of memories and a spot in the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame. The Open Door team, which were coached by current Firelands coach Alan Januzzi, will be enshrined alongside Aubrey Oliver, Karlee Bruck, Rebecca Yarish-Bowen, Dave Phiel and Brian Schneider on Aug. 7 at the Spitzer Center on the campus of Lorain County Community College. "It's a great honor for all of my teammates and coaches who put in so much time and so much work," said Tori Davis, who was the leading scorer on the team and who was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2017 for his individual accomplishments, which included a stellar career at Baldwin Wallace University. "When it was happening it all seemed surreal," Davis said. "Now looking back and having the proper time to process it, I understand the magnitude of it. In the moment, you're just there and playing and looking for the next thing."The Patriots, who had a starting five of Davis, Madalone, Mike Asbury, Jared Herron and Aaron Freeman, ended the year with a 20-6 record. "We knew we had a special group," Januzzi said. "As a coach I was thinking we could win a couple of tournament games but I remember when we had a preseason retreat and we talked about goals, Madalone was the guy who kept saying, 'We can get to states.' I didn't know if it was a realistic goal at the time.""We had two leaders on the team," Januzzi added. "Tori Davis was a great player but he was one of the most humble unassuming individuals you're ever going to want to run into. Tori was so humble the other guys just wanted him to succeed. That was humble leadership I got out of him. Tony Madalone was what I would call a servant leader. I remember him staying after practice and working with Jared Herron on passing drills. He made the people around him better by working with them. You had that intangible of the guys on the team playing for each other."According to Madalone, the leadership the Patriots showed on the court was a direct result of the leadership and mentorship they received from Januzzi. "I transferred to Open Door my sophomore year and the second I met coach Januzzi we just clicked," Madalone said. "He's always been a father figure for me and I know he had similar relationship with other players as well. Coach Januzzi always had our best interests at heart. He taught us a lot about the game but even more about life."The highlights of Open Door's postseason run were a pair of buzzer-beating wins against Kidron Central Christian in the district finals and against state-ranked Sebring McKinley in the regional finals. "The biggest memory for me is the two regional games," Januzzi said. "I remember going into that regional after we won the Strongsville district. I show up at the regional meeting and it's Bristol, Berlin Hiland and Sebring McKinley, all three teams who were ranked in the state and had been in the regional the year before. I'm thinking the chance of us even competing with these teams is slim to none. We faced Sebring McKinley in the regional final. They had all seniors, they were ranked No. 9 in the state and we end up winning that game when Tori puts a tip in with three seconds left."Both regional games were in front of packed houses of more than 5,000 people. You can't ask for a better high school basketball venue than that." Prior to earning the right to play at Value City Arena, which at the time was the annual venue for the state tournament, many of the Open Door players had experienced the event as fans, traveling to Columbus with Januzzi to watch the games. Those trips helped inspire them to make a tournament run of their own. "We knew how big of a deal it was," Madalone said. "We used to go down to the state final four every year and watch the games, so we definitely knew the magnitude of the games." Januzzi said when he took the Open Door job no one expected the team to be state title contenders a few years later. "When I got hired at Open Door we never talking about getting a team to the final four," Januzzi said. "The only discussion we had was using the game of basketball and the experience of athletics to further the mission of the school, which is to develop kids and bring them to Jesus Christ."Although Open Door was one of the smallest schools to play in the tournament, with just 61 boys, Davis and Madalone recall how the school and the entire community supported them on their tournament run. "I remember the amount of fans from Elyria and Lorain County who went down to support us," Davis said. "Even when we were leaving from Open Door heading down there were people lining the road. The support was like something we had never seen before. The whole city and county was behind us and supported us when we went to Columbus."The camaraderie and chemistry the senior-laden tea, built over their high school careers was part of what made them so good on the court. Eighteen years later, Madalone expects those bonds to still be evident when they gather for the enshrinement ceremony. "It will be fun," he said. "I haven't seen some of these guys since high school. With social media we've had some communication but it will be interesting and fun to have everyone back together. I imagine it'll be like old times." Contact Todd Shapiro at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com