LOUDONVILLE – There is absolutely nothing typical about the Loudonville girls basketball program.
Anyone watching the Redbirds practice for even five minutes can see the pace is frantic.
Anyone talking to head coach Tyler Bates for even two minutes can hear the expectations are limitless.
Anyone looking at the results from the last seven seasons can recognize that LHS is in the midst of one of the best stretches in area basketball history (combined 142-31 record).
When Loudonville kicks off its season Tuesday at home against Lexington, a deep postseason run will be the only missing piece to its puzzle.
The team’s best recent finish came in a regional semifinal loss in 2021 – the only blemish in a 25-1 campaign that saw them tie a program record for wins.
“We’ve had a handful of 20-win seasons recently and even when we win 20 games, if we don’t have the tournament run that we want, we’re not happy,” said Bates, 176-66 entering his 11th season.
“I think as a coach, or for the upperclassmen, that’s exciting because you do want to keep striving to play for that last weekend down in Dayton. If you’re not there yet, the job’s not done yet.”
A standard under Bates certainly has been set. And with a trio of senior leaders – guards Sophia Spangler, Jena Guilliams and Ohio’s reigning Division III Player of the Year Corri Vermilya – the Redbirds are not shy about saying their biggest goals lie beyond the regular season.
No Ashland-area team has ever won at least 20 games five times in a stretch of seven seasons, as the Redbirds have. Most of them haven’t had that many 20-win seasons in their entire history.
Loudonville’s seven consecutive league titles also are a local standard.
Talk to the seniors and they will tell you all those ludicrous numbers are just stepping stones.
The 5-foot-4 Guilliams, who buried 45 3-pointers last season, said before practice Tuesday that it’s never too soon to start talking about state aspirations.
Vermilya sat next to her teammate looking every bit like one of the grittiest players in Ohio. She’s already had sustained two black eyes and a broken nose while mixing it up in the paint during a scrimmage.
Probably not a surprise to anyone who watched the 5-9 guard finish third in the running last year for Ohio Ms. Basketball. She averaged 28.1 points, 12.8 rebounds and 6.0 steals per game with two broken bones in her foot and enters this season carrying Loudonville’s scoring record (1,671) and needing just 52 more rebounds for that record as well (currently at 900).
“The saying goes, ‘If your goals don’t make some people think you’re crazy, they’re not big enough,’” said Vermilya, committed to NCAA Division II juggernaut Ashland University. “So we’ve been saying it for a really long time now, ‘We’re going to state this year, and when we get there, our goal will be to take the title.’
“But right now we’re trying to get there. We’ll tell everybody that – we believe it.”
Loudonville is no stranger to the big stage. The Redbirds have four state-title teams – three in softball (1993, 1997 and 2002) and one in volleyball (1991) – and also feature the only Ashland-area teams ever to make state championship games in football (1990) and girls basketball (1991-92).
Before this season’s first practice, Bates had his squad look at the picture of the 1991-92 team just outside the LHS gymnasium.
Coach John Wilson led those Redbirds to a 25-3 record and Bates emphasized to his team that when people look at that photo, they don’t see the stats or the starting five, only the team that made it to the finish line.
“Every day we walk into the gym we see the state (tournament) signs on the walls and it’s just a reminder that our district has had a lot of success at the state level,” Bates said. “… These kids’ parents, aunts and uncles were on a lot of teams here that had a lot of success. It’s a reminder that it’s possible if we stay after it, believe in ourselves and work hard.
“It takes some skill and some luck, but at least we’ve seen that the blueprint is there.”
After competing as one of the smallest Division III programs in Ohio in recent years, Loudonville will be one of the largest in Division IV.
Bates, though, said there is still plenty of talent looming at that level, and he has refused to take the easy route through the regular season.
While the Redbirds have run roughshod over the Mid-Buckeye Conference for years now – winning 30 straight league games and 50 of their last 51 – they have constructed their schedule in recent years like few other teams in Ohio.
After getting it cleared with the OHSAA and their MBC member schools, Bates has been able to drop a few league road games that would not be competitive and instead plug in contests against tougher opponents. The coach said matchups against Lexington, Mount Gilead, Clear Fork, Akron Ellet and Columbia this season all should help strengthen his team.
Again, the mentality of a program trying to break into the category of small-school powerhouse.
“Some people questioned us, ‘Why would you give up games where you’re favored to potentially lose?’ ” said Bates, also in his third year as Loudonville’s athletic director. “We know a lot of coaches wouldn’t do that, but we’re past the point where all we care about is winning regular-season games. So when we build our schedule, we do want to continue to try to find teams that can push us.”
Spangler, a 5-7 guard who moved to Loudonville after her sophomore year at Big Walnut, has partial academic and athletic scholarships to play at Division II Tiffin University. She said the Redbirds love the extra challenge.
“Each scrimmage we play in practice, each scrimmage we play against a different team and each game we play, we’re going to be playing as if it’s a state game,” said the senior, who averaged 9.0 points per game last year and did a little bit of everything else despite missing three games due to a concussion and playing hobbled for much of the season.
“We’re going to be playing it as hard as we can.”
Added Guilliams, “I think (the schedule) prepares us a lot. It’s good to play these bigger schools; it’s going to prepare us for down the road when we’re in the tournament.”
While Bates hasn’t been scared to beef up the schedule, he hasn’t been hesitant to make his practices second-to-none in intensity, either. He said Loudonville has had years with just one or even zero seniors on its roster because of the rigorous nature of workouts and the demands of his program.
Even the team’s ballgirls help run the clock and get involved in different ways during drills in practice.
“Whenever we were in the weight room or on the track or in the gym in the preseason, we were thinking about our goals long-term,” Guilliams said. “That’s what we were working for.”
The team’s assistant coaches carry a varied and rich depth of knowledge. Rex Conway has been with Bates all 11 seasons, and the Redbirds also have on staff former West Holmes standout Hannah Clark and former Strongsville player Kaitlyn King.
Along with that trio, Bates this season was able to add legendary former Chippewa coach Denny Schrock and his long-time assistant Jeff Santmyer to the mix. Schrock went 723-154 in 42 seasons as a head coach and had two state runner-up finishes with the Chipps – the second one coming eight months ago.
Bates himself has learned what it takes to get to the next level over the years. While a junior in 2008 at Smithville, his team made the Sweet 16, and the Smithies won the Division III state poll the next year before losing by five to eventual state champ Cleveland Central Catholic in the regional finals.
He became a student assistant women’s basketball coach while attending Marietta College and was offered the Loudonville job before he even graduated.
Under Bates, the Redbirds have had seven different All-Ohioans and six 1,000-point scorers.
He estimated that 40 percent of the girls who have played for him through their senior year have gone on to play in college, and he credited his father, Jim, and brother, Alex, for their coaching help over the years.
“I don’t think it’s any secret that we expect a lot out of these girls to play in this program and I know it’s not for everybody in the school,” Bates said. “But one thing I will say is that darn near all of our seniors who have stuck it out and graduated from the program have called us years later and said thanks for teaching us about life and hard work and being committed to something bigger than yourself.
“We understand that there’s no shortcut to getting where we want to go, so we’re not going to change what we expect from the kids and from ourselves as a coaching staff.”
If there was uneasiness among this year’s seniors, it doesn’t show. The trio has a running text group chat filled with conversations about what they each can do to keep motivating and pushing themselves and the team.
“We all play off of each other and feed off each other,” Spangler said. “Even the younger girls, too, they all work hard and they look up to us and come to us for advice.
Vermilya, who will be under a scorching-hot spotlight all season as one of the state’s best, said she wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I like (talking about winning a state title), because if you know you all have a common goal and you want to go reach that, it makes you work that much harder,” she said. “Especially doing it with people you love.
“Going out on the court every day with Loudonville on your jersey – when you know who you’re playing for and what we’re doing this for – there’s no pressure.”
