Ryan Walsh's lifetime in the gym pays off as Lorain County Mr. Basketball

EATON TWP. — Ryan Walsh is the epitome of a gym rat. All the hard work paid off with a fantastic career, culminated by being named Lorain County's Mr. Basketball on Sunday night at the annual Troy DiFranco All-Star Night featuring the Gene Legeza Cage Classic played at Midview. Walsh's fondness for the gym and the sport make sense. Walsh, who averaged 30 minutes a game for Elyria, is the son of longtime girls and boys coach Mike Walsh, now an assistant for the Pioneers, and he's the grandson of legendary coach Bob Walsh, who authored state championships at Clearview and Oberlin during his Hall of Fame career. "I've lived in the gym ever since I was born," Ryan said. "Watching my grandpa win a ton of games and watching my dad with the girls, I've always had those two in my ear, helping me tremendously. My grandpa comes to all of my games. It's a blessing having him as my grandfather, and my dad would always take me to the gym. He's been my coach my entire life playing basketball. "The Walsh name has been a pretty big standard to live up to, but I think I did a pretty good job." "He worked really hard to make himself a basketball player," Mike said. "He was always a good athlete when he was little. He liked baseball first and basketball was just something that was there. He started working at it and fell in love with it." Walsh is the 10th Mr. Basketball from Elyria High, joining among others, Brett Larrick, his coach, who won in 1993. "It was an incredible honor, such a prestigious honor when I got it, and I know I was very humble and appreciative of everybody that came before me," said Larrick. "For Ryan to win it is a great honor for him. Very deserving." "I watched a bunch of Mr. Basketballs being a ball boy at Elyria," said Walsh. "It's always been a goal of mine. I saw a bunch of Elyria guys win it. I'm just glad I'm the next one." One thing Walsh (6-foot) always did was play hard. "That's all I can ever do," he said. "I might not be making shots but I can always play hard and kind of get my team to play hard. If a senior leader's not playing hard, what are they expected to do. I kind of take that role on — play my hardest." This season, Walsh bought into the idea of becoming the facilitator for the Pioneers from his point guard position. After averaging 20.4 points his junior year, he finished at 16.8 this year but made 52 percent of his 2-point field goals and got to the free throw line 139 times, sinking 121 (87 percent). He led the team in steals with 55 and had 154 assists to 74 turnovers. He led the team in charges taken with six. "To do what he did, what we asked of him for the improvement of our team," said Larrick. "We asked him a simple question. 'Do you want to average more points or do you want to win more?' He said 'win more.' We needed him to double his assists and he tripled them — from 2.1 to 6.5. The leadership that that shows for the betterment of the team, it defines this award. "It's not only a great honor for Ryan but for his teammates, as well." Elyria finished 18-7, 10-4 in the Southwestern Conference, tied for second place with North Ridgeville behind Avon Lake. "Coach kind of pulled me in," said Walsh. "He said, 'You're going to have to change your game a little bit and kind of take over this team as a leader and not just as a scorer, distribute to your guys. We have a lot of shooters around.' "It worked out in our favor. We won 18 games this year. It's been a fun season." Walsh began his career at Keystone, compiling 562 points in his freshman and sophomore seasons. He had 171 assists, 100 steals and shot 84 percent from the foul line for the Wildcats. He transferred to Elyria prior to his junior season and this year broke the single-season assist record of 150 set by Jay Bender in 1982-83. For his high school career, Walsh scored 1,431 points, 869 coming at Elyria. He finished with 377 assists and 199 steals in his four years. "He started at Keystone but actually he just came home," said Larrick. "He started as a ball boy for us. He saw the district championships. We just think he came back home to finish." Walsh is going to play college basketball but hasn't decided where. He's going to visit a couple of more schools before making his final choice. Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.&emsp;&emsp; LORAIN COUNTY MR. BASKETBALL2023 – Ryan Walsh, Elyria2022 – Aden Gregory, Midview2021 – Seth Wilson, Lorain2020 – Jonny Manning, Midview2019 – Devon Grant, Lorain2018 – Dorian Crutcher, Elyria Catholic2017 - Naz Bohannon, Lorain2016 - Bo Furcron, Elyria2015 – Devon Andrews, Lorain2014 – Cameron Kuhn, Vermilion&emsp;&emsp;2013 - Kody Bender, Elyria2012 - Claude Gray, Avon 2011 – Ronnie Willoughby, Avon Lake&emsp;&emsp;2010 – Nick Farley, Vermilion2009 – Drew McGee, North Ridgeville 2008 – Promis Cabbil, Elyria2007 – Troy Simmons, Clearview2006 – Louis Tumblin, Elyria2005 – Dan Biber, Admiral King2004 – Jordan Beard, Oberlin2003 – Robert Nelson, Elyria2002 – Tom Port, Avon Lake2001 – Brian Ingleright, Avon Lake2000 – Scott Remaklus, Southview1999 – Brian Keller, Vermilion1998 – Steve Vega, Avon1997 – Eric Gilbert, Clearview1996 – Carl White, Admiral King1995 – Anthony Stacey, Midview1994 – Byron Gladden, Admiral King1993 – Brett Larrick, Elyria1992 – Frank Bolognia, Avon Lake, Todd Simon, Columbia1991 – Craig Bradley, Avon Lake, Mike Darmos, Southview1990 – Eric Barnes, Elyria Catholic1989 – Jamie Gladden, Admiral King, Mike Hartman, Lorain High1988 – Harold Walton, Admiral King1987 – Greg Eichenberg, Columbia1986 – Chip Winiarski, South Amherst1985 – Jeff Mott, Avon1984 – Joe Rittenhouse, Wellington1983 – Roger Smith, Admiral King1982 – Doug Carrico, Firelands1981 – Tom Underman, Elyria, Bobby Warden, Elyria Catholic1980 – Bill Szabo, Firelands1979 – Mike Razdrh, South Amherst1978 – Jay Dill, Keystone, Clay Dill, Keystone1977 – Richard Montague, Elyria1976 – Bill Dodd, Firelands1975 – Fred Balser, Elyria