Lucasvile Valley 60 Portsmouth Trojan 52

[biggdowgg]

this game came right down to the wire congrats on valley on the win and Brian Rolffe on joining the 1,000 club with 30 points.
I thought Portsmouth showed a lot of class stopping play and recognizing the young mans accomplishment and everyone in the gym for standing and applauding him. these two teams are always a fun game to watch I hope they continue playing regular season games.


Trojans have to put this one behind them as it dont get any easier anytime soon with back to back games against Chesapeake and fairland .

[coop]

Solid win for Valley against a good team. The Indians are further along than I thought they would be going into the year.

[trojandave]

Congratulations to the Valley Indians on the win.......and to Brian Rolfe for an outstanding accomplishment. I was very glad to see the stopping of the game to recognize his achievement, while both fan bases rose to their feet. Valley won the game by making plays at both ends in the final 2 minutes, which is characteristic of a senior dominated team. Very proud of the Trojans effort......3 of PHS's 4 losses have been by 8 points or less. Kyre Allison had an outstanding game for the Trojans. 2 sophomore starters and two other sophomores coming off the bench should spell good things in the future for Portsmouth.

Congratulations to Coach Eugene Collins on becoming the 3rd winningest coach in PHS history, with the win over Manchester. His career mark is now 109-44. Thanks to PA announcer Corey Allison, Kyre's father, for including that in his pregame introductions.

[biggdowgg]

these two teams could meet up pretty early in post season as it looks like Portsmouth will be a low seed and Valley looking to be a high seed ,I dont see many other teams on Valleys schecule challenging them,while Portsmouth has peake and failrland back to back now and will will face both them teams again later on including two games left with Ironton .

[blue53]

It was a classy move by Portsmouth and their fans to recognize a young man on his milestone on their court.

[pfloyd]

Congratulations to the Valley Indians on the win.......and to Brian Rolfe for an outstanding accomplishment. I was very glad to see the stopping of the game to recognize his achievement, while both fan bases rose to their feet. Valley won the game by making plays at both ends in the final 2 minutes, which is characteristic of a senior dominated team. Very proud of the Trojans effort......3 of PHS's 4 losses have been by 8 points or less. Kyre Allison had an outstanding game for the Trojans. 2 sophomore starters and two other sophomores coming off the bench should spell good things in the future for Portsmouth.

Congratulations to Coach Eugene Collins on becoming the 3rd winningest coach in PHS history, with the win over Manchester. His career mark is now 109-44. Thanks to PA announcer Corey Allison, Kyre's father, for including that in his pregame introductions.

... Congratulations to Coach Collins on reaching this milestone in his coaching career ! just doesn't seem the same going through a season without having seen the Trojans play yet, no biggdowgg or trojandave & friends !!! looking forward to seeing the Portsmouth crew at the Beasts of the Southeast on Jan 9th in Chesapeake ...

[PTownhoops]

I hate to say this but back when I played PHS wouldn't have played this game. I remember when the 1st time we played Wheelersburg. But that was back when our league was Middleton, Springfield, and Lima. Boy there was some good players there.

[trojandave]

PTownhoops: I feel what you're saying.......I graduated in 1975 when Portsmouth was a AAA school......and then 3 years later became AA and the Trojans won the 1978 State Title. Today's PHS is far smaller than when you and I went there........hard to believe, but in 1978 PHS's enrollment was 369, which was only 7 boys from AAA. In 1988, the enrollment actually grew to 425, only 2 boys from D1. In 1990, just 2 years later, the number was back down to 341; the Trojans were state runnerup in D2 that year.

Today, Portsmouth High School has an OHSAA boys classification enrollment of 162, less than half of the 1990 figure and over 200 less than the 1978 count. Although I don't know the official counts of the 50's and 60's, I would imagine that PHS's enrollment probably approached 500 at least.

There were only 2 classes in basketball before 1970, so it was not uncommon for the Trojans to play Scioto County schools in the sectional tournament. I can remember while researching the basketball history of PHS that Portsmouth East, Minford, Northwest, and West were all tourney opponents of the Trojans before 1970. I don't recall any instances of PHS and Valley playing during that time. Wheelersburg and Portsmouth didn't play in the regular season until 1974, with the Trojans coming out on top 77-55. Two years later, an undefeated Wheelersburg team beat the Trojans 68-53 at PHS. Portsmouth then beat Wheelersburg in the 1978 sectional tournament, ironically at Valley HS. Minford beat a very good PHS team in the 1953 district tournament.

Currently, Portsmouth and Valley have played 4 times during the 7 years of Coach Collins tenure at PHS......and the Indians beat the Trojans in the Jackson sectional in 2010, the district championship in 2014, and this year's 60-52 regular season win. Portsmouth beat Valley 54-50 in the 2012 district championship game en route to a D3 state runnerup finish.

Declining population and open enrollment have really cut into Portsmouth's enrollment figures. Despite this, Coach Collins has maintained a consistent winning program since his hire. This year has seen some growing pains with 2-3 sophomores starting and a bench with little prior varsity experience, but the Trojans have been competitive in every loss. They will lose some more games, but they will also get better as the season goes. PHS has won at least 15 games in a season 42 times, and will be challenged to do so this year. At Portsmouth, though, the tournament is more important than the regular season, and the trophy case in PHS gym tells a tale that Trojan fans have embraced and cherished throughout our proud history. Coach Collins said in the PDT preview this year that the goal of Trojan basketball every year is to get back to Columbus. He totally understands what Trojan basketball means to our community.

[Voice of Reason]

these two teams could meet up pretty early in post season as it looks like Portsmouth will be a low seed and Valley looking to be a high seed ,I dont see many other teams on Valleys schecule challenging them,while Portsmouth has peake and failrland back to back now and will will face both them teams again later on including two games left with Ironton .

Valley still has Minford twice, but they also face the same Chesapeake and Fairland teams on back to back weekends. The Indians out of conference schedule is very solid.

[biggdowgg]

forgot they was playing Fairland at Chesapeake. but Im still betting they beat Fairland and get at least one against Minford.

[wipala]

trojandave, comments about PHS in years gone by. I am a 1964 grad of PHS and at the time we had only 10, 11 and 12th grades at the high school. After the Trojans won the big school basketball championship in 1961 we only had one returning player, Mr. Parker (who was injured some during football) and the tryouts for the basketball at the old Grant Gym was something to behold. I do not remember the exact number trying out, it had to be around 40 or so boys.
We were still playing teams from the GOL, can not remember if we were still in league. My sophomore year, btw I did not make the team
we won one game, we upset a decent Chilli team and we lost our only tourney game to Northwest. Of course upon Larry Hilse and Al Oliver our
junior year we did much better.
Population and open enrollment has really hit PHS hard, in all sports. I notice the county population has remained somewhat the same as the mid 60's. People moved out to the burbs as most cities have been hit. Jobs, and lots of them left and so did the people with them.
As mentioned before we used to play county schools in the sectionals and they, as a rule were not much of a game, just due to the comptetion
PHS played and the size of the school for picking players. Fast forward to today and the roles have switched big time. PHS, size wise is a shell of what it was and the open enrollement has allowed players to go play with kids they want. (OHSAA allowed of course)
I would have loved to seen PHS get into the SOC but we know that story oh too well. The OVC appears to be a good league for the Trojans and I
hope they will be able to compete on a steady basis in all sports played.
Thank all the posters on this web site that allow folks such as I that live far away to keep up on the greatest show on grass and boards!
WipalaWalt
Surprise, Arizona

[PTownhoops]

I remember watching those Trojan days and I'm telling you one thing Larry Hisle was the man on the basketball court. He would have played at OSU but signed his baseball contract. Those were the days my friends.

[wipala]

Ptownhoops, spot on! Larry was something special. Trojans did well during that period without much height, not unlike this year's edition. But Larry played like 6'8". Larry, Al Oliver, Jim Cyrus (our big at 6'3"),Steve Battle and Bob Novinger played some great ball.

[PTownhoops]

I have a lot of pride and interest in the State Champion teams as I had family members involved. I'll never forget shagging fly balls that Larry hit while trying out with the Phillies. Later in life I needed some signed balls for a special event and he came thru with balls signed by the Blue Jays and they won the W.S. that year. Man I wish I keep those balls and did not give them away.

I'll tell you another player that I had the pleasure to play with was David Underwood. Man he could sliver with the best!