Don't foul ?
Happens when you have football players
I’m crazy enough to believe these Trojans could very well land themselves at U of Dayton in a few weeks. That stretch of games West, Ironton, SP and Fairland has seen a new found confidence and grit emerge in Lisath’s young men. Some probably told him he was a fool for taking on this challenge, but as he said in Bannon Park back in the summer God gave him a vision! Maybe that’s why he doesn’t panic when our Trojans find themselves down double digits, he already knows what’s at the end. Reading your post, it’s almost as if Lisath entered the gym and found a glass sneaker, and Malachi was the foot that fit it.trojandave wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 5:26 pm This 15-5 season has been very enjoyable because of how the situation looked heading into summer ball last year. After the 2022-23 season ended, Portsmouth was faced with the loss of 3 starters......Kenny Sanderlin, Tyler Duncan, then Devin Lattimore transferred to Wheelersburg in the spring. With almost 40-45 points lost, and with a 1-18 JV team, it looked for certain that PHS was headed for yet another sub .500 season and looking up in the OVC standings which had become a regularity the past several seasons.
Enter Jeff Lisath......from the day he was hired in May, Coach preached to the kids coming back that he demanded commitment and that's what he got. The players......DeAndre Berry, Isaiah Lewis, Donnovan Breech, LeVaughn Cobb, Luke Stine, and Noah Livingston which were the core of the 2023-24 varsity rotation all put their nose to the grindstone and bought in to Coach's expectations. The gym doors were open daily, and the kids took full advantage of it. Each took on themselves personally that what happened last season was not going to happen this time around.
Then summer ball came, and the results looked encouraging. The Trojans were winning quite a few summer games, and there began to be a feel about these Trojans that it was going to be much better in 2023-24. Coach Lisath implemented a style that took advantage of the athleticism of which there was no shortage of. He had a team that he could build around DeAndre Berry and get the rest of the rotation to fill their roles. It was a case of the individual parts being greater than the whole. But this was summer ball, and results in June many times don't match what happens when the bell rings true in early December. Then Malachi Loper transferred in from Portsmouth Clay just before the school year, and he was a perfect fit for the type of team that Coach Lisath wanted to put on the floor.
December came, and from the very 1st game the Trojans had a different look to them. They beat a good Lawrence County, KY team and then proceeded to reel off 5 more wins to start 6-0. Then the slump came, and some were wondering if the clock had struck midnight with the Trojans going back to the Trojans of the past several seasons. The team struggled to win on their home court, but strangely seemed more comfortable playing on the road. PHS lost 5 of their next 8 games, and 15-5 looked to be a hundred miles away.
But Coach Lisath never lost faith in what he wanted to accomplish, and neither did his players. A 30 point win at Ironton seemed to get things going in the right direction, but then South Point came to Trojan Arena and handed PHS a 34 point spanking. Where would the Trojans go from here? At 9-5, and sinking in the OVC standings, could Portsmouth right the ship? Rather than feel sorry for themselves, they responded with a 6 game winning streak, a perfect 6-0 record on the road in the OVC, and for the 1st time since 2015 have a chance to win at least a co-championship with a win at Fairland tomorrow. 15-5 did become reality, rather than just a wild dream. It's been 7 years since the Portsmouth Trojans have touched the Convo floor....way too long for the SE's district's winningest program of all time. They have a great opportunity to make that futility end.
So to look at next season and say that it looks bleak is a cautionary tale. It certainly looked that way heading into this season with so many questions and few answers. Coach Lisath has proven with the odds stacked against him that he can make something very good out of something that didn't look so good. Let's not write off the 2024-25 season just yet even with losing 4 starters and a 5-13 JV team. Just look what's happening now and you have evidence that next season might just might be much better than what some may be doubting. Coach Lisath is not one of those doubters. Champions don't doubt, they believe, and Coach Lisath is a champion.