Certainly Les Miles would understand. Hey, no one who leaves the Buckeye State to play football for Michigan would be hurt to know a lot of college football fans in these parts weren’t pulling for him last January when his LSU Tigers were taking on Ohio State for the national football championship.
Still, maybe it eased the pain of another Buckeye beatdown knowing that the coach of the national champs was from good ol’ Elyria? Well, it had to help a little, right?
Miles’ ascension to the top of the college football mountaintop (that’s him in the top photo holding up the championship trophy) is our top area sports story for 2008.
The competition was fierce as always. Especially with such big stories as Olmsted Falls’ (left) going undefeated and winning the Division I state volleyball championship, and the retirement of some of the top basketball coaches this area has ever seen in Elyria’s Bob Walsh, Lutheran West’s Karen Wittrock and Avon Lake’s Amy Manco.
Then, as always it seems, we had the failures of the Browns and Indians, as well as the soaring of LeBron James and the promise of the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Tough choices, indeed.

1. LES WAS MORE THAN ENOUGH

LSU coach Les Miles made Elyrians proud but Buckeye fans extremely disappointed, when he guided the Tigers past OSU, 38-24, in the BCS National Championship Game on Jan. 7.
Miles’ Tigers shook off an early 10-0 deficit to score 31 unanswered points and leave Jim Tressel and the Buckeyes with their second consecutive devastating national title defeat.
Miles, a graduate of Elyria High, where he starred in three sports, including football, spoke fondly of the city, praising his hometown for molding him into the man and coach that he is today during news confer-ences prior to the title game in Glendale, Ariz.
But though born and raised in Ohio, Miles has always shown a fondness for beating Ohio State, playing and coaching under legendary Michigan coach Bo Schembechler before getting his big victory over the Buckeyes as LSU’s head man.

2. BROWNS A SUPER DISAPPOINTMENT

The Browns began 2008 with such high expectations that a Super Bowl chant broke out on the first day of training camp. Unfortunately, that was the high point of the year and now they’re in full-blown rebuilding mode.
The Browns got off to an 0-3 start and never recovered, finishing 4-12. Injuries played a part, as well as questionable game management by coach Romeo Crennel, unimaginative play calling by Rob Chudzinski and subpar quarterback play by Derek Anderson.
The year got even worse when Brady Quinn (finger) and Anderson (knee) wound up on injured reserve. The Browns lost their final six games, as they failed to score an offensive touchdown in a record stretch of 24 quarters.
As has become commonplace in Berea, a major overhaul ensued. General manager Phil Savage and Crennel were fired, and owner Randy Lerner finished 2008 on the road interviewing candidates he hopes will fix the franchise.

3. PERFECTION, THY NAME IS OLMSTED FALLS

The Olmsted Falls volleyball team completed a dream season by claiming the school’s first-ever volleyball state championship. The Bulldogs were Ohio’s only undefeated high school volleyball team (29-0) and became the first public school in 11 years to win a Division I state title.
Olmsted Falls went to five games only twice all year, against Southwestern Conference arch-rival Amherst in the regular season and against Toledo St. Ursula in a Norwalk Regional match.
The St. Ursula match was the only time the Bulldogs were on the ropes in the postseason, as the Arrows won the first two games before Falls rallied to win the last three. The Bulldogs beat previously unbeaten and No. 1 ranked Ursuline Academy of Cincinnati in the state final.
Senior outside hitter Lauren Whyte (516 kills, 5.7 kills per game) was named Ohio High School Player of the Year. Sophomore setter Dayna Roberts was second team All-Ohio. Dawn Moses was given a Coaches Achievement Award by the Ohio High School Volleyball Coaches Association.

4. ELYRIA BOYS FINALLY END DISTRICT TITLE DROUGHT

For the first time since the days of Coach Mike Riley, Richard Montague and Hubert Oliver, Elyria High qualified for the boys regional basketball tournament.
The Pioneers came from an 18-point deficit in the third quarter to beat defending champion Strongsville, 68-64, in the district semifinals at Midview and then roared past Olmsted Falls, 98-84, to earn their long-awaited rteurn to the Sweet 16.
Elyria’s trio of lightning-quick guards — Mr. Basketball Promis Cabbil, Demetrius Dalton and Rayshawn Camel — were the key to the Pioneers’ season that ended, 70-65, against St. Edward in the regional semifinals at Cleveland State. Elyria was coached by Bob Walsh.
It had been a 31-year wait for the Pioneers to win the district championship. The last time Elyria advanced to play a tournament game outside Lorain County was in 1977 behind the 6-foot-9 Montague (20.6 point average) and Oliver, who later played professional football with the Philadelphia Eagles. Elyria won the regional that season before being eliminated in the state semifinals. Both Montague and Oliver are members of the Elyria Sports Hall of Fame.
At that time, Elyria was a force at the local level. The Pioneers had won 17 district championships in school history — 14 in a 20-year span that concluded in 1977.

5. A LOCAL LEGEND CALLS IT QUITS

Bob Walsh, with more wins than any coach in Lorain County history, announced he was stepping away from the game after leading Elyria High to its first Sweet 16 appearance in 31 years.
Walsh began his illustrious career at Clearview, where the Clippers won the state championship in 1974. After 16 years at Clearview, he took over the Oberlin program and guided the Indians — as they were known at that time — to the state title in 1986.
He won 241 games at Clearview and 199 at Oberlin. He also had stops at Vermilion (73 wins) and Elyria Catholic (80) before taking the Elyria position in 2005-06. He was 50-20 in his three years at Elyria.
Walsh won 643 games and lost only 301 over 42 years as head coach. His teams won 19 conference titles.
Walsh really didn’t retire. He is currently assisting his son Mike with the Elyria girls program.

6. TOUGH TO DO, EVEN TOUGHER TO TAKE

It went into the books as a classic exercise in futility when Elyria finished as Division I softball state runner-up behind North Canton Hoover on June 7.
When the Pioneers dropped a 1-0, 10-inning heartbreaker, it marked the third year in a row they finished as the state’s second-best team. Not only that, the loss to Hoover’s Vikings extended the Pioneers’ consecutive scoreless innings streak to 25 in state title games. That is believed to be an Ohio state tournament record.
Elyria was blanked 4-0 by Hudson in 2007 and 2-0 by Hoover in 2006, both seven-inning games. The streak started when the Pioneers went scoreless in the seventh inning of their only state championship victory, 2-1, over Cincinnati Sycamore in 2002.
Pioneers coach Ken Fenik was obviously frustrated when he met the press later in the media room at Akron’s Firestone Stadium. "Don’t we win a cake or something for finishing second three years in a row?" he asked.
Still, how many teams make it to one state final, let alone three straight? Few could doubt the Pioneers’ place among the elite programs in Ohio.

7. FROM THE EDGE OF A CLIFF TO THE MOUNTAINTOP

Indians left-hander Cliff Lee rose from the scrap heap to resurrect his career with a miraculous comeback season that ended with him winning Cleveland’s second consecutive AL Cy Young Award.
Lee, who endured a miserable 2007 season that included a demotion to the minors, was forced to earn a job in the rotation during spring training before he became the first Indians pitcher to win 20 games since Gaylord Perry in 1974.
He led the league with 22 wins and a 2.54 ERA, winning 11 straight decisions at one point and also stringing together 27 scoreless innings.
Included in the list of many accomplishments for Lee during his dream season was a start for the American League in the All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium, where he pitched two scoreless innings and struck out three.

8. CAVS FIND SOME CHAMPIONSHIP MO

It was a breath of fresh air in the doldrums of summer. Aug. 13, the day the Cavaliers traded for Milwaukee Bucks point guard Mo Williams.
After already retooling their team during the season by shipping away malcontent Larry Hughes, underachieving Drew Gooden, over-the-hill Donyell Marshall and somebody named Ira Newble for Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, Ben Wallace and Delonte West, the Cavs refused to wait around to see if the new guys would mesh.
Instead they shipped out Smith and the
not-nearly-as-good-as-he-thought-he-is Damon Jones for Williams, a player who had torched the Cavs whenever he played them.
The move proved to be a good one as Williams has meshed perfectly with LeBron James and proved an able go-to-player when James is resting.
Just how good has it been? Well, the Cavs are off to a 26-5 start, the best in franchise history, and seriously thinking about winning their first NBA title.

9. CLEAR SOME MORE SPACE ON THE TROPHY CASE

Winning three state wrestling titles in three tries is no easy feat, obviously. Just imagine doing it under the pressure of knowing your older brother already bagged four of those babies.
Still, Collin Palmer, a St. Edward wrestler from Columbia Station, racked up his third state title, claiming the 135-pound weight class to move just one championship away from joining older brother Lance as one of the few to accomplish the feat.
He already joined Lance in another area though: He signed a letter-of-intent to wrestle for Ohio State, same place Lance is wrestling now.

10. TRIBE PLAYOFF PLANS GO UP IN SMOKE

Outside of the performances of Lee and Grady Sizemore — who joined Lee at the All-Star Game after putting together another top-shelf season that saw him become the second player in Indians history to hit 30 home runs and steal 30 bases and win his second straight Gold Glove Award — little went right for the Indians in 2008.
A year removed from coming a win away from a trip to the World Series, Cleveland, wrecked by injuries to high-profile offensive players Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez and starting pitchers Jake Westbrook and Fausto Carmona, found itself pretty much out of contention by the All-Star break and trading off veterans Paul Byrd, Casey Blake and CC Sabathia for future prospects.
The Indians were one of the majors’ best
second-half teams, which gets them a third-place finish in the AL Central Division at 81-81.
Sabathia wound up pitching the Milwaukee Brewers into the playoffs, where he once again stumbled, before the Big C got big money — $161 million over seven years — from the Yankees in the offseason.

Kevin Aprile, Chris Assenheimer, Steve Byrne, Bob Daniels, Tim Gebhardt and Scott Petrak contributed to this story.
 

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