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Oak Hill honors teammate’s memory
Maybe it’s coincidence the Versailles Tigers, desperately needing a clutch shot late in the fourth quarter of its Division IIII state semifinal, were stuck on 41 points.
The Oak Hill Oaks know better.
During the fall, freshman basketball player Janie Hatfield died of cancer. Her number? 41.
“We promised her parents we’d never forget her,” Oak Hill coach Doug Hale said. “When we leave Oak Hill for every away game, we leave 41 on the clock. When we get back Saturday afternoon I can’t wait to look up at the clock and see Janie’s number up there.”
So maybe with her teammates needing a little help in the D-III semifinal on Thursday, March 19, Hatfield didn’t forget about them. Versailles, the defending state champs, tied the game at 41-41 with 1:58 left in the fourth. They didn’t score again until 2.6 seconds left.
Oak Hill — a small town of about 1,600 in Jackson County in Southern Ohio — plays South Euclid Regina for the D-III title on Saturday. Nothing against Regina, a five-time state champion, but you have to pull for the Oaks.
The Oaks also made it to the state finals in 2004 so it’s not quite Ohio’s version of Hoosiers, but it brings the same feel. And watching them, you get the idea that this bright-eyed team that starts two juniors, a sophomore and two freshmen and brings a junior, sophomore and freshman off the bench are genuinely appreciative of just being in the big city.
“We’re a blue-collar community and our people see us work hard,” Hale said. “We go out and do food drives in the fall. If the community needs something done they know they can count on our student-athletes at Oak Hill. We’ll jump in and help them all.”
The basketball teams get a banner on the wall for every district title and beyond they win. They’d like to add another Saturday.
“We’ve got a lot of tradition there,” Hale said. “Our girls, every day they walk into the gym they see that tradition on the wall.”
And No. 41 on the clock.
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