Middle school boys basketball: Eastern Heights on an outrageous winning streak

ELYRIA — One hundred and 34 … and counting. On Thursday at Olmsted Falls, Elyria's Eastern Heights eighth-grade team clinched the Southwestern Conference championship and extended its overall winning streak to 134 games. It beat Olmsted Falls 66-51 for its 18th straight win this year. This group has won back-to-back SWC crowns, having won the seventh-grade title a year ago, and they've compiled 36 wins without a loss in middle school competition. The other wins were in AAU or organized weekend tournaments. "I think a little bit of complacency got into them a little bit (this year)," said coach Kyle Rospert. "They've been undefeated for how long? They knew they could get pretty far without playing as well as they probably should be playing. I really tried to harp on them to play as a team, ball movement and everything. The last two weeks of the season was the best two-week stretch for them. They just moved the ball so well and playing as a team." The core of the group has played together since the second grade. They share the ball on offense and play sound, fundamental and physical defense. No one seems to care who scores or gets the credit. In fact, Rospert said, they rely on the home scorekeeper at away games. They don't keep stats for the kids. "I could probably give you a good guess," Rospert said. "Drew Gibbs is our biggest kid. He definitely led us in rebounding. He's already built like a junior in high school. He's probably one of our leading scorers. We probably had four or five kids averaging double figures." Rospert, a fifth-grade math and science teacher at the school, is a graduate of Norwalk St. Paul and Bowling Green and has been a teacher and coach in the Elyria system for five years — the last three at Heights. He has coached this group in the seventh and eighth grades. Paul Skorvanek coaches the current seventh-grade team. The 10 players on the team include Jamill Johnson, Kyler Larrick, Jaylen Stevenson, Kaiden Higginbotham, Khalon Jackson, Ja'Vontae Carter, Jerrimiah Carroll, Demetrius Dalton, Gibbs and Alliance Anderson. Higginbotham and Jackson attend Northwood Middle School and Anderson attends Westwood. The others are all Eastern Heights students. When asked if he thought there was any pressure on the group to keep the streak alive, Rospert said he didn't think so. "I've heard them talk about the number before, but it's very, very rare," he said. "I really think they just look at each other as friends. They're a fun group. They bust each other's chops a lot but it never really goes over the line. They're just friends. I really think that's the power of the team. "They're talented but they're really good kids, really good discipline. You can tell they come from good families. In my 11 years of coaching, multiple sports most years, I've never had a group where I've faced zero disrespect. That's not just the kids, it's the parents, too. I've never had a parent approach me about playing time, never had a parent approach me about not running plays for their kid. It's really amazing." Rospert said the biggest satisfaction he's had is seeing the development of players who didn't play with the core through all the years. "There were three kids who hadn't played basketball before," he said. "The amount they were able to soak up from the other seven, they learned way more from those seven kids than they did from me. That was the coolest part. To see those seven take those three under their wing." The three, Carter, Carroll and Anderson, have fit in and have contributed. "They could see how it's supposed to be done, how drills are supposed to be run, how practice is supposed to be run," said Rospert. "Those seven had good coaching. Obviously, Coach (Brett) Larrick was their youth coach coming all the way up." Larrick is the coach at Elyria High and Rospert was asked if that makes it easier or harder. "He's incredible," Rospert said. "I've had people ask me that before. He could make it really hard but he's always given me great support. I've asked questions like 'What would you do in this situation,' and he always has the answers, but you never feel like he's overshadowing you. I've never felt anything but support. He comes to all the games and lets me coach the kids. I think that's the way it should be. "His son Kyler obviously knows basketball and it makes it so much easier. There are times when I ask Kyler a question, coach's son. He gets it." Contact Tim Gebhardt at (440) 329-7135 or timothygeb@msn.com.