KARL PEARSON
BARBERTON — Going on stage for the first time is difficult for anybody.
So it was understandable that first-time jitters were prevalent among the members of the Geneva girls basketball team on perhaps the biggest stage they had even been on when they went on the court Tuesday night at Barberton High School for the first appearance ever by an Eagle team in the regional tournament.
It may have even been a factor in Geneva’s struggles early in their game against the Struthers, where the Wildcats eventually hung on for a 50-46 victory over the Eagles.
“We came here knowing we could win this game,” senior guard Carly Cash said. “We just didn’t play the way I know we can.”
“We thought we could win this game,” senior guard Courtney Thompson said. “I was a little nervous. We started off a little slow. I think I probably started feeling more comfortable after the first quarter.”
The only person in the Geneva ranks who had experienced the pressures and nuances of the regional-tournament environment was head coach Nancy Barbo. She had not only experienced it playing at the regional level, but also at the state tournament during her own high school days at Mansfield St. Peter.
“There’s not much you can tell the girls,” she said. “It’s something you have to experience yourself.
“You have to be fanatical in your approach to the game. You have to realize that it’s now or never.”
Struggles with their nerves probably had a lot to do with the 10 turnovers the Eagles committed in the first quarter. But the Wildcats also had their own issues to deal with, since it had been 14 years since Struthers had been to the regional tournament. Struthers held a 9-8 lead after the first quarter.
Senior guard Jillian Nazor said it was particularly difficult to deal with all the waiting before the game.
“I was real nervous when we got here and people started filing in,” she said. “Being here was such a great experience. We put a lot of effort into this. It never felt like just another game to me.”
What made it special to the Geneva girls was all the support they got from their fellow students and their community.
“The community and the school pulled together so much for us,” senior post Taylor Webb said. “We’re really grateful to our community for how they supported us.
“I felt everyone was really ready. We were 100 percent with it. We started off a little slow, and it took us a couple minutes to get in it. But I wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything. I’d like to thank Mrs. Barbo, all our team and the school and community for making this such a great experience.”
Senior post Natalie Stanley expressed similar thoughts.
“What a great experience it was!” she said. “I can definitely say it will be something I’ll never forget.”
Interested observer
Somebody who might have had a bit of a rooting interest for Geneva from her own high school experiences was Canton South varsity assistant coach Tiffany Arendas. She had many a meeting with the Eagles from her days as a basketball standout at Madison High School before her graduation in 1998.
Arendas, who played basketball at Walsh University and numbered Jefferson graduate Shelly Burns as one of her teammates before she finished her time as a Cavalier in 2002, is in her fifth season as an assistant to Canton South coach Kevin Meers, whose Wildcats (22-2) were taking on defending state champion Hathaway Brown in the second semifinal. It didn’t work out for the Wildcats as Hathaway Brown earned a 49-37 victory to set up a meeting with Struthers on Friday at 7:30 p.m.
“I never imagined I’d be doing something like this,” she said. “My focus when I graduated was on being a teacher. But I’ve found out I really enjoy it.
“I started out as a volunteer and have gradually moved along. It’s been nice getting back into (basketball).”
Arendas, whose sister Tracy still lives in Austinburg, was watching Geneva with the hope that the Eagles could knock off Struthers.
“It’s kind of crazy seeing them again,” she said with a smile. “It brought back a lot of memories.”
She loves her teaching job in the Canton City School system.
“I teach second grade, and I love it,” Arendas said. “I’ve also taught a little bit of first grade and a little bit of third grade, but I really enjoy working with the second graders.
“First graders are a little too needy and third graders are a little too independent. Second graders come in and want a hug every day and another one before they leave. I teach an inclusion class, which means we have special education students along with the typical student. No two days are alike.”
Home cooking
Speaking of Hathaway Brown, the Blazers got a bit of a bonus this year when they were moved out of the sectional-district tournament at Pymatuning Valley to the tournament at St. Joseph Academy. It probably also helped pave the way for Geneva to make its first regional-tournament appearance.
HB coach Paul Barlow said there were definitely more plusses to the move for his team.
“Having to only travel 18 miles and not worry about arranging for a bus was definitely a welcome thing,” he said. “When they were talking last year about changing the district, all my parents were after me to make sure we were involved. It is trading that for a 77-mile trip one way that took about an hour and 40 minutes in good weather.
“I didn’t mind making the trip on weekends, but it was a tough thing to deal with that on weekdays when the girls had to be back in school the next day.”
Still, Barlow said he misses PV in some ways.
“We’ve been real successful out there,” he said. “It was kind of sad. The people at PV like (tournament director) Ron Weaver and his assistants Frank Roskovics, Bob Callahan and Melody Nowakowski all treated us with such class. I miss those people. It was a great environment out there.”
There is one member of his party that doesn’t miss the trips to PV anymore.
“I sent one of my assistants out to scout the Edgewood-East Tech game on one of those nasty nights out there,” he said with a wry smile. “He called me up later, called me all kinds of nasty names and asked if I was trying to get rid of him.”
Other workers
The officiating crew for the Canton South-Hathaway Brown game would have been familiar to area coaches and fans. Michelle Peters, Rick Puckrin and Jerry Ranally were the officials for the second game and watched much of the Geneva-Struthers game before getting ready to go to work.
Faces in the crowd
Among the people on hand to support Geneva were Conneaut head girls coach Tony Pasanen and members of his staff, Chardon player Katie Collins, Geneva boys head coach John Marhefka and former Geneva boys head coach Brad Ellis.
