“Our people just love their kids. They love our team and what it’s done for our community.”
And so the folks in Jackson Center celebrated the Tigers’ return from Columbus on Saturday just the way they did eight days earlier when their team had beaten Jefferson in the regional final to garner its first trip to the state tournament in 27 years.
Police cars waited for the Tigers bus Saturday afternoon near Indian Lake High School to lead it and a growing caravan of cars on the short trip along Route 274 West back to Jackson Center. Once in town, fire trucks led the welcome-home parade around the streets.
After that, a reception was held at the high school and then Saturday night a big party was scheduled at the local American Legion Hall.
The community embrace helped lessen some of the numbing sting the Tigers had felt Saturday in Columbus when the defending state champs ran roughshod over them.
Jackson Center’s 36 points was its lowest output of the season. Meanwhile, Hiland’s 68 were, by far, the most the Tigers had given up all season.
Jackson Center was outrebounded, had more turnovers and shot 24.4 percent from the floor. Seven of the Tigers’ shots were blocked by Hiland, whose pair of 6-foot-7 starters, Seger Bonifant and Neil Gingerich, and 6-foot-5 Dylan Kaufman, combined for 47 points, 17 rebounds and all seven swats.
“Honestly, we just didn’t have an answer for those three kids,” Elchert said. “They were phenomenal today. There’s a reason they’re back-to-back state champs. At least today — and probably most days — they’re the better team.”
Jackson Center became the sixth unbeaten team in the past nine years to lose for the first time in the state championship game. Over the past 72 years, 32 teams — including other area schools like Versailles, Tri-Village, Greenon, Urbana and Middletown — have met that fate.
Yet, as Saturday’s game wound down and many of the Tigers stars already were slumped on the bench in tears, the large contingent of Jackson Center fans — all in their “We Got Your Back” orange T-shirts — were on their feet cheering and applauding their players:
“J.C. (clap, clap) Tigers!!!...J.C. (clap, clap) Tigers!!!”
And as you watched the lovefest unfold, you understood exactly why Elchert had moved back to the small Shelby County town eight years ago.
After graduating from Findlay College, the Upper Sandusky native had come to Jackson Center in the late 1980s for his first teaching and coaching job. He spent 10 years — five as the JV basketball coach, five as the varsity coach — and then got an opportunity to go home again.
“I just wanted some type of challenge at that point in my life and a few people from Upper Sandusky contacted me and said the coaching job had come open,” he said. “The team hadn’t won in years, the program was suffering, so I decided I wanted to go back to my alma mater and try to resurrect it. And we ended up having a lot of success when I was there.”
And then he and his wife Leisha did something that might surprise people.
They packed up and moved back to Jackson Center.
Although neither is from there — Leisha’s from Muncie, Ind. — and the Tigers hoops program had been struggling, the basketball job was open and they decided Jackson Center is where they wanted to raise their family.
“At that point we had four children and another on the way and my wife and I just liked it there,” he explained. “We absolutely love the community.”
After a couple of mediocre years, Elchert had a 2-19 season. After that he made a concerted effort to bolster team chemistry and talent and the changes were dramatic.
The team won 12 games, then 13 and last season 16.
Then came this year’s glorious run.
The Tigers were paced by 6-foot-5 senior and 4.0 student Andy Hoying, who led the team in scoring, rebounds and assists and was named Division IV co-Player of the Year in the state. Elchert shared D-IV Coach of the Year honors.
The only time Elchert broke down publicly at the Schott on Saturday was during the postgame press conference, when he tried to talk about his two senior starters, Hoying and Troy Opperman, who flanked him.
“More disappointing than the loss is knowing that I just coached my last game with these guys,” he said before choking on his words. “These two young men are like my sons.”
And the whole family theme is real with Elchert.
“I’ve got one boy who plays for us,” he later said of his son, Trey, the team’s junior point guard. “My other two boys are our ball boys. Then our two daughters were in the front row today screaming and going crazy. And my wife was up there in the stands, too.
“That’s what this was about today, too. Sure it was about winning, but it was about community, too. And we’re a part of it.”
That was evident throughout the magnificent season and all during Saturday’s tough outing in Columbus.
And, most importantly, it was there for the team when it got back to town after the game.
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