MIGHTY CHAMPIONS. Massillon's basketball team celebrates their state championship on Lincoln Way East Sunday night after their return from Dayton. It was the Tigers first state championship ever in their program history.
COMMENTARY: Massillon rises up, devours detractors, flies to greatness
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press writer
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
DAYTON--Last year was a stunning and confusing time for the Massillon boys basketball program and their fans.
It was just nearly a week earlier that the Massillon girls basketball program had won their first district championship in 31 years and the boys were on the cusp of their first district title in 22 years. However, an eight-win opponent that was assessed no chance of winning a district title pulled off an unimaginable accomplishment against a team that had Division II Final Four written all over it.
Shaker Heights, a team who had struggled through an unsuccessful regular season that was seen by many as an afterthought departed the Wooster High School gym with an unexpected 72-67 victory that closed the book on the careers of seniors Chris Knight, Jalen Slaughter, and Terrelle Keyes. As Tigers players watched Red Raiders players receive their gold medals and the championship trophy as their rite of passage to the Akron regional in stunned silence and confused expressions, Massillon father Ryan Knight offered six words to the returning Tigers, words that became their motivation going into 2025-26.
"You will be back here again."
As I drove home from Wooster, I thought about Knight's words. At the same time it started to hit me that 19-win seasons don't happen too often and opportunities like that just don't arrive like that. What no one knew that with the high expectations pinned on the 2025-26 edition of the Massillon Tigers, this wasn't going to be a team that was going to underachieve. This wasn't a team that just wasn't going to meet expectations. This was a team that were going to become overachievers.
Sunday afternoon at the University of Dayton arena, the Tigers stared adversity in it's eyes as they trailed defending Division II state champion Westerville North 45-30 in the third quarter. This was the same Warriors team that handed Massillon's neighboring rival Perry a very humiliating defeat in the previous season's title game and were two or three baskets from handing Massillon that same execution. People were already anointing the Warriors as a dynasty. They were going to be back-to-back Division II state champions. They had the best team and the best fans in the state of Ohio. Back-to-back state champion shirts were being made out for the Warriors. Massillon was returning to Stark County with a runner-up trophy and a city in melancholy quietness.
Now stop that. Stop it right now.
Massillon showed the fighting determination that summed up their season and city in the final 15 minutes and 49 seconds of action. A city that prides itself on overcoming adversity. A city where skin color doesn't matter. A city where high income or low income setting doesn't matter. Massillon, Ohio is a fighting city that doesn't believe in abdication until the final zeroes are showing on the clock. Paced by a 38-18 scoring assault and although staggered like a boxer fighting off the ropes, the Tigers needed an extra period to subdue North and the sight of young men in orange and black jerseys celebrating at midcourt with their coaches amid tears, high-fives, and hugs, not to mention the hugs to the students as well.
Final score: Massillon 68, Westerville North 63 in overtime.
Repeat it again, Massillon 68, Westerville North 63 in overtime.
As everyone knows for the first time in their program, the Tigers captured the first-ever state basketball title in their history. And this is a team that to face not just adversity during the season but outsiders who doubted their ability to thrive on the state's biggest stage.
Earlier in the year, a buzzer-beating setback to North Canton Hoover may have developed into a losing streak that may have spanned two, three, or more games. But there was something about this team that everyone will remember for years to come. There was a three-game road gauntlet that featured three straight district champions in Alliance, Central Catholic, and Mansfield Senior. The Tigers conquered all three on the road. And then there was the home contest against archrival Canton McKinley. Massillon fell behind 10-2 and were down 51-37 before using a 40-24 advantage to capture a second straight win over the Bulldogs. And then how about a walk-off three-pointer at the buzzer against Jackson on the road.
That set the stage for the Tigers return to Wooster. Massillon obtained their long awaited district title with wins over Green and Wadsworth, the latter in which the Tigers had two 14-0 runs with the second one in the third quarter in which the Grizzlies did not get off a single shot attempt. Massillon stayed in Wooster for the regionals and faced even greater adversity against Avon and Euclid in which the Tigers survived foul trouble in both contests to obtain their ticket to the Final Four.
Many outsiders felt Massillon's season was going to get shattered by a Lima Senior team that had players that were able to score from an array of locations. But Massillon showed in a battle of the two highest scoring teams in the state that they CAN play defense as the Spartans, a team reliant on big shots all season only made three out of 33 three-pointers attempted. That's about nearly as low as a percentage can get as the Tigers departed the Nutter Center on the Wright State University campus, a 75-63 winner. And we know what happened the next day.
HERALDED HOSE. Eighth-year Massillon head basketball coach Josh Hose cuts down the net after Massillon's 68-63 victory over Westerville North Sunday in the Division II state championship. It is the Tigers first state basketball title in their program. (Keno Sultan/Stark County Prep Press/ESPN 990)
For head coach Josh Hose, this was a dream that no one outside of him expected. The son of longtime Massillon administrator Butch Hose, who is still revered by the Massillon City Schools and Massillon residents for the successful 40 years he was an administrator, this road for the younger Hose commenced eight years before.
He made the extremely difficult decision to depart the Tuslaw girls program after eight successful seasons to return to his alma mater. Hose inherited a program which at the time didn't have a sign of leadership as previous coach Michael Cruz departed after two short seasons.
My paths first traversed Hose's when the Tigers were playing against McKinley. Hose woke up that day and was informed he was going to be without three starters due to family situations that required their attention away from competition. It will have been understandable if Massillon had gotten ruptured by the Bulldogs or they just plainly didn't show up. I sure as heck would understand. But that was not the Tiger way. In front of a low crowd of 913, McKinley posted a 63-39 victory. After a postgame interview with him, I came away believing that Massillon found their leader. Someone might have said I was stupid and ignorant for that (I've been called that many times by others, it's OK, no hard feelings) but my assessment was genuine.
You have to remember that Hose was a junior in 1997 on a Massillon team that was the tallest in Stark County. A starting lineup that was a combined 29 feet, 29 inches and with a very lethal shot blocker in Marco Morgan, who loved to throw block parties with his long and rangy arms whenever a basketball received an invitation to the basket. That Massillon team had district title written all over it and may have won it had not Canton McKinley been twice the infiltrating force that ended the Tigers year at 19-4.
29 years later, he reached the pinnacle of Ohio high school basketball. And the progression from the last four years have been staggering. Massillon has ascended from sectional-district second round, to district semifinalists, to district finalists, and now state champions. During that astronomical run, Massillon is a blistering 75-25 with a fantastic 10-3 ledger in tournament competition.
Young men growing up in Massillon will emulate the state champion Tigers in their parking lots, recess on the playground or the recreation center. A young boy will say "I'm Xavier Williams." Another will say "No, you got to be Braylon Gamble, I'm Braylon Gamble." Even better, "Wait, you got to be Gio Jackson, I'm Gio. You have to be Isaiah Lamp." In any case, the appreciation is already ingrained in those boys, who you can be sure when they go to school, they will tell their teachers when they grow up, they are "going to play for the Massillon Tigers."
There is a special part of Hose that is in my heart. Last year, he invited me to the team dinner. What he didn't know was that it happened on my birthday. It was the best birthday present I ever had. This year was even more special. As a Muslim, I was observing the sacred month of Ramadan. As people know, Ramadan is the time of spiritual cleansing when Muslims abstain from food or drink till sundown. Hose made sure I was able to eat and also made sure I took a plate home for me and my mother. That gesture.........excuse me if I get emotional...embodied what Hose is about not just as a coach but also a father, a husband, a gentleman and a friend. That meant a lot. Also, Hose this year sought out an opposing coach for a private talk after a heated contest in which handshakes were called off and the two had a very nice talk outside the hallway. No media. No one else. The gym departed and the lights were off. Just Hose and the opposing coach. And Hose didn't do that just to burnish his reputation. He did it because it was the right thing to do and showed why Massillon has class. And he would do it again if he had to. That makes me proud.
10 years or longer down the road, everyone will talk about Williams' heroic block leading to a Warriors point blank range miss. People will chat about Lamp's leadership. Others will speak about Jackson's vaunted rim detonators. Many will mention Marcus Garner's block parties. Or the Lincoln Way East lasers from Jadyce Thigpen and others that scorched nets to ashes.
Massillon not only rose up. Massillon carnivorously devoured their detractors. Massillon flew to greatness.
In a season that saw Massillon capture 27 wins, a season ending in a 24-game winning streak, and a final #1 ranking in the state of Ohio, I want to take the time out to thank everyone on the team who was a part of this seraphic moment, six of them all Massillon graduates: Hose, Marquis Williams, Jamil Dudley, Brian Smith, Evan Berbari, Derrick Conley, and Blake Sitzlar. I want to also thank Amir Jones, Joe Pierce (JoeJoe), Brayden Smith, Landon Hose (the oldest of Coach Hose's four children), Drew Williams, Terrion Wells, Xavier Williams, Garner, Isaac Maxheimer, Gamble, Mascen Marceric, and Jackson. And finally, the seniors who will forever leave Massillon Washington High School as state champions: Lamp, Thigpen, and Damarion Day. You all grew up in Massillon. You all went through the camps. You stepped up the ladder from elementary school to now high school champions. No transfers. All home grown and bred for greatness.
Massillon dad Ryan Knight told the Tigers last year after the Shaker Heights game, which became a life lesson well served, "you will be back here again." He was right. They not only came back to the district championship, they overachieved in a triumphant way which no one can ever question the validity of Massillon again. At least not on my watch.
Thank you to the 2025-26 Massillon boys basketball team. You are champions always and forever.
TRIUMPHANT TIGERS. Massillon basketball players celebrate their state championship Sunday afternoon at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. (Keno Sultan/Stark County Prep Press/ESPN 990
Keno Sultan is a writer for Stark County Prep Press and basketball color commentator for ESPN 990. He can be reached at 330-445-4575 or email at KenoSultan@hotmail.com.
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