SHELBY — He was an undersized guard who survived on grit and off-the-charts basketball IQ, and Greg Gallaway’s Shelby Whippets share some of those same traits.

The Whippets (25-2) will meet Maysville (25-3) in the second of two Division II state semifinal games at 2 p.m. Saturday at the University of Dayton Arena. Kettering Alter and Youngstown Ursuline tangle in the lid-lifter at 10:45 a.m.

That Gallaway has piloted Shelby to the Final Four for the first time in program history comes as no surprise to longtime Ashland University coach John Ellenwood. After all, Ellenwood had a front-row seat for Gallaway’s evolution.

A 2012 Ashland High School graduate, Gallaway spent his first two years at AU as a kicker on Lee Owens’ football team. He walked on the basketball team, where he saw limited action during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons. 

“Greg was very unassuming when you saw him in a basketball uniform,” Ellenwood said of the 5-foot-9 Gallaway. “He was actually a great athlete and he … played with a lot of heart and passion.

“Greg has always been a great teammate and that work ethic to be a college athlete, those are the characteristics that stand out.”

The Eagles were 19-10 in the rugged Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 2014-15. Gallaway appeared in eight games and was invaluable during game preparation.

“When he was in practice, he was tenacious. He hated to lose,” Ellenwood said. “He didn’t get a ton of minutes on the floor but for him that didn’t matter.

“He made us better through his work ethic and his basketball IQ.” 

Gallaway was a three-year letterman for Rob Lavengood and Tim Fralick at Ashland High School. He averaged 10.2 points a game as a junior and 9.5 points a game as a senior under Fralick on teams that finished a combined 11-32.

“Coach Fralick is someone I still stay in touch with. I was (on) his first couple of teams at Ashland and we were the teams that were a big part of the struggle,” Gallaway said. “That was part of it, to get that growth.”

Three years later, Ashland won its first Ohio Cardinal Conference crown in Fralick’s fifth and final season.

“Even though none of us won as many games as we would have liked, those first groups were a huge factor in the program’s overall improvement in terms of establishing the culture and work ethic. He was a vital part of that,” Fralick said.

“My first year, his junior year, we only won two games. His senior year, we won nine games and we beat a couple of state-ranked teams.”

Like Ellenwood, Fralick said opponents who underestimated Gallaway’s athleticism did so at their own risk.

“He was deceivingly athletic. He might not stick out as somebody who is going to have an explosiveness to the rim but he could hang in the air longer than you would anticipate,” said Fralick, whose wife, Robyn, coached the AU women to a national championship in 2017 and is now the head women’s coach at Michigan State.

“He was able to absorb contact and still finish and he would also draw a lot of fouls. He was a pleasure to coach.”

Like any good coach, Gallaway took what he learned from his mentors and implemented it in his own coaching philosophy.

“(Coach Fralick) let his guys play, make reads and react, and I think that’s one thing that is pretty consistent with us and our coaching philosophy is we let our guys play,” Gallaway said.

“We have a lot of guys who have put in the time and the effort where we trust them.”

The Whippets will have to be at their best Saturday afternoon. Maysville has won 20 games in a row and overcame double-figure deficits in both the regional semifinals and the regional championship game.

“Maysville is an incredible team. They are here for a reason,” Gallaway said.

“When you play against a team that has multiple threats shooting 3-pointers, it puts a lot of pressure on you guarding the basketball. You can’t extend your help as much as you would like to.”

Regardless of what happens this weekend in Dayton, Fralick has enjoyed watching a former player give back to the game.

“He’s a great guy and I think his passion for basketball has continued to grow throughout the years,” Fralick said. “It’s fun to see a former player get into coaching. 

“He’s done a great job and I’m very proud of him.”