Massillon basketball celebrates title with elegantly pristine ceremony
By Keno Sultan
Stark County Prep Press writer
www.starkcountypreppress.blogspot.com
MASSILLON--It was one thing for the Massillon Tigers football team to seize their first state playoff title three years ago.
The Massillon Tigers basketball team knows how to seize a title as well.
In front of a packed gym at Massillon Washington High School, a large crowd filed into the 2,926 seat venue to witness the Tigers obtain their Division II state basketball title rings by virtue of their thrilling 68-63 overtime victory over defending champion Westerville North nearly five months ago at University of Dayton Arena to capture their first state basketball title to punctuate a 27-1 season, a season that saw the Tigers overachieve in a way that no one imagined.
Through the annals of Stark County, residents are quick to mention the Canton McKinley three Division I title winning squads, most recently their 2005 and 2006 title winning squads to go with the 1984 team along with the 2010 and 2017 Jackson Division I title winning teams and two seasons ago, the 2025 Louisville team in Division III. Now Massillon has joined the fraternity of Stark County schools that have won state basketball titles.
This path commenced for Massillon a year ago as they departed Wooster High School with the wrong trophy in the form of a district runner-up as their 19-win season was shelved by a Shaker Heights team that many based on their 8-15 record at the time felt they were no threat to a Tigers team many felt would see hated rival Warren G. Harding in a potential Final Four that will have created a seismic quake around the state.
For the Tigers to take that next step, they had to find a way to commence life without graduated veterans Chris Knight, Terrelle Keyes, and Jalen Slaughter. Embracing that challenge was vital to the team's success according to eighth-year admiral Josh Hose, a 1998 graduate who was also a district runner-up as a junior under the direction of Matt Creamer, now the head coach of Central Catholic.
"The expectations were high especially the last couple of years. We were 18-4 going into the tournament and fell short. Shaker Heights played really well against us that night so our guys used that as fuel to come back and get back to the district title game and beyond that. We did talk about that in terms of expectations and we expected to make a deep run and if we played up to our standard ability, we became the tightest team and one to be fun to coach," Hose said.
In the Tigers fourth contest of the season, after overcoming a 20-point chasm to overtake Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Massillon was on the acrid end of a Connor Newell walk-off three-pointer at the buzzer as North Canton Hoover exited a stunned and silent Massillon gym with a 74-71 win. That was a game that might have immediately turned into a multiple game losing streak if the Tigers didn't get off the canvas in time.
The Tigers responded with an emphatic 108-83 pillaging of eventual regional finalist Elyria. Along the way, Massillon survived a wicked road gauntlet against eventual district champions Central Catholic, Alliance, and Mansfield Senior. Massillon prevailed in all three contests. But it was two wide victories over Final Four competitors from last season in Youngstown Ursuline and Gates Mills Hawken that really started to convince Hose that the Tigers were a team poised to ascend past the district round.
That also included multiple choppy wins along the way that showed that Massillon doesn't always win by routs, they can pull out tight wins when needed.
"You will get blowouts when you can beat really good teams. But at the same time, it has been said that defense travels and that proved true in the tournament. The McKinley game, the Jackson games were tournament prep games for us. Those are the types of games you play where every possession matters and those games, especially against Warren Harding and their coach (Keelyn Franklin) prepared us for the tournament down the road," Hose attested. "When you get into close games, how do you react? To get into those games and to see how they responded showed how resilient our team were."
In the last four years, Massillon has played over 100 contests, capturing 75 of them. Massillon also has won 10 of 13 games in the tournament. Along the way they have obtained two rivalry wins against their chief rival for the first time since the 2002-03 season in which Massillon won three out of four (the 2002 win broke a 31-year home losing streak). The Tigers also made progressive steps ascending from the sectional-district second round, to district semifinalists, to district finalists and then finally state champions.
During the tournament trail, Massillon defeated Green for the second time, pinned down Wadsworth in a game that saw the Tigers hold the Grizzlies scoreless in the third quarter as they didn't attempt a single shot in the quarter, survived testy affairs against Avon and Euclid in regional competition before finally overcoming deep squads in Lima Senior and then North, the latter in which Massillon trailed by 15 before outscoring the Warriors 38-18 to annex the state championship from the defending titlists.
The ceremony was the final honeymoon for the team as they are four months away from returning to competition to defend their title and clearly at the height of their dominance. As the Tigers bid farewell to Damarion Day, Jadyce Thigpen, and Isaiah Lamp, Massillon will return another strong nucleus as they will try to become the first Stark County back-to-back state champion since the starlight-studded McKinley teams from 20 years ago.
Hose doesn't want this however to be the highlight of their lives. Greater things are ahead of them but at the same time he wants them to relish the moment as they mature into adulthood, eventually becoming husbands, uncles, and then the peak of it all, grandparents to pass down their experiences to the boys who will carry on their surnames.
"I want them to progress in life. Go be great husbands and family men. We don't want this to be the pinnacle of their life. We want them to be great men in life and do great things. We are all in the spotlight and this is a moment to remember not just here but life too," he said.
It was one thing for the Massillon Tiger football team to seize a state title three years ago. The Massillon basketball team knows how to seize a title too.
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