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Award-winning columnist Tom Archdeacon — an old-school storyteller in a brand-new venue — writes about sports, the city, southwest Ohio and anything else that catches his fancy… or yours.Home > Blogs > Through the Arch > Archives > 2011 > January > 11 > Entry
The “Dark Side” and a lot of familiar faces
CINCINNATI — Although I was sitting in the Cincinnati State gym Monday night, it was as if I had never left the Miami Valley.
The Surge women’s and men’s basketball teams were hosting Vincennes University and I was there to see former University of Dayton point guard Edwin Young, who, as he told me with a smile, has “gone over to the dark side.”
He’s now a basketball referee and he was officiating the men’s game.
I’m doing an upcoming story on Young, but there were several other folks in the gym with local ties, as well.
The other two officials Monday night were former Central State basketball player Steven Short, who is known by many around the Wilberforce campus as “Skinny,” and Scott Hartley, who’s from Camden.
Theresa Check is the Cincinnati State athletics director and women’s basketball coach. She still lives in Dayton.
This is her third season at the junior college after leaving Central State, where she became a hoops legend.
She was a Marauders player, then for 17 years was the women’s coach and later the AD.
In those 17 seasons, she won an amazing 387 of 496 games, took her team to the NAIA national tournament a record 13 times and graduated nearly 100 percent of her players. She’s enshrined in the the NAIA Hall of Fame as well as the CSU Athletic Hall of Fame.
In her first two seasons at Cincinnati State, her teams went 22-6 and 20-11. Each won the conference championship.
Her current team is 8-8, but the record is deceptive. Although a Division II school, the Surge have played six Division I schools and are ranked 23rd in the nation.
Five of Check’s players — all of them freshmen — are from Miami Valley. They include:
— Brittiney Latimer, a 5-foot-9 guard/forward, from Xenia.
— DeDe Henry, a 5-foot-5 guard, from Trotwood-Madison High.
— Kara McLemore, a 5-foot-8 guard, also from Trotwood Madison.
— Whitney Bailey, a 5-foot-10 forward, from Piqua.
— Taylor Frazier, a 6-foot-1 guard, from Middletown.
In the stands Monday there were more familiar faces.
Wright State women’s coach Mike Bradbury was there — as were coaches from Indiana University and a couple of other D-I schools — to watch the Vincennes team.
Two of WSU’s men’s coaches — Clayton Bates and Scott Woods — were there watching the men’s game.
Though not in the building one other familiar local figure was there — in spirit.
Check — whose team is 1-0 in conference play — likes to fill her non conference schedule with bigger Division I schools. She took the Surge to Florida to play a couple of D-I schools this season. They played other D-1 schools from Oklahoma and Alabama.
Vincennes (Indiana) was ranked No. 4 in D-1.
This is reminiscent of Miami University, which won its first Mid American Conference game of the season in triple overtime at Ohio University the other day. Leading up to MAC play, the RedHawks played the toughest non-conference schedule in the nation this season according to the latest Sagarin ratings.
They played at No. 1 Duke, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Kansas, hosted No. 6 San Diego State and No. 25 Cincinnati and also played Dayton, Xavier and Wright State, among others.
As Cincinnati State assistant Ron Harris describes Check’s non conference scheduling:
“She’s gone Charlie Coles on us again.”
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