DAYTON, Ohio — For small towns across the country and in Ohio, high school sports play a major role in the community’s identity.
Marion Local in Mercer County is no stranger to winning state championships.
They boast an impressive record of 15 in football, five in volleyball, two in boys' track, one in girls' basketball, and three in boys' basketball.
For the community, sports success is proving to be a staple of growth in more ways than one.
“In 1975, we won our first state championship in basketball,” said Randy Bruns as he looked up at a massive wall of Marion Local sports memorabilia at the Korner Kafe in Maria Stein.
Bruns is a banker, the Marion Local School Board president and he does the play-by-play streaming for football and basketball.
“It’s a sea of blue and gold for sure at Marion games,” he said as he held up a Marion Local shirt.
It’s common to see a lot of blue and gold just about everywhere in town.
It’s also common to see family members pulling over on the side of the road to take a quick picture of their friends and family to show support.
“It’s a wonderful thing for these boys. I’m proud of all the seniors and the other ones on the team,” said grandmother Diana Feasby.
In this community, sports success seems to come with the territory and even in new housing developments across from the school, a basketball hoop seems to come as a standard add-on.
“It’s a very tight-knit community, and that goes to the sports teams as well,” said Bruns.“It’s a very tight-knit community, and that goes to the sports teams as well,” said Bruns.
Many students play multiple sports.
“He golfed this year, and he also does baseball,” said Feasby.
“Basketball practice starts like five days before the first game of the year because the football team has had so much success. But as Coach Goettemoeller will point out, these kids know how to win,” Bruns said.
They’ve also watched family members win year after year and choose to keep that tradition going.
“I think absolutely sports has something to do with that. We’re actually building a new school building because we have growth and enrollment and that comes from people wanting to come back to this area and raise their kids here. It’s a big thing,” said Bruns.
And when times get tough, sports matter.
“The bird flu — we have a lot of poultry farmers around here. Look, I’m not going to sit here and say a basketball games changes anything that happened, however there is just something about sports, especially winning, that brings the community together,” Bruns said.
As the Flyers basketball team heads to another state championship final, Bruns says what makes it extra exciting is seeing how far the team has come.
“This team was under 500 last year. They made a nice run in the tournament, got to the district final, but to have a 20 and 2 season and have a chance at a state championship. Incredible,” he said.
Marion Local will take on Monroe Central this Saturday at 2 p.m. at the University of Dayton Arena. You can watch this game as well as all the others on Spectrum News 1 by clicking here.
