ASHLAND – They would never say it, but memory lane is a masterpiece for the Fralicks.
Both built with the game of basketball stamped on their DNA, Tim and Robyn Fralick landed at Ashland University at different times as assistant coaches for the Eagle men’s and women’s programs.
They eventually met and married – two Michigan natives building both a partnership and a coaching future in the Buckeye State. And the Ashland basketball chapter they authored undoubtedly became one of the most uniquely spectacular in area sports history.
Ten years ago now was the watershed timeframe for it all.
“It was like the Shangri-la of the coaching experience for that time period,” Tim said Tuesday with a laugh.
Arrow boys brandish breakthrough winter
Tim had spent five seasons as an assistant under former AU men’s head coach Roger Lyons from 2004 through 2009. Eventually, he was named the 22nd varsity head coach of the Ashland High School boys program in 2010 as a 29-year-old.
He led the Arrows for five seasons and his last – the 2014-15 campaign – turned into what many view as the best in the history of a program now in its 117th season.
Ashland went 22-2, winning 22 games in a row and running the table in the Ohio Cardinal Conference (14-0) while setting an AHS record for victories in a season.
“That was a special year,” Tim said. “It was an opportunity to coach just an awesome group of kids.
“They were willing to get in the gym and put the time in that it requires to be successful and improve. It was fun to see the kids build that sweat equity and earn the rewards that came from that.”
Only two other times (1947-48 and 1953-54) have the Arrows won 20 games in a season. Only two other times (1925-26 and 1944-45) have they finished with a perfect record in league play.
When reminiscing Tuesday, Tim rattled off the names from the 2014-15 roster so easily that it seemed like he had just left a practice with the team.
It still vexes him that they weren’t able to make up a game that year against Mount Vernon that was canceled due to snow.
“We had been struggling a little bit as a program and not having the success that we would like to and Tim came in and brought a clean perspective from the college ranks and really changed things a lot,” said current head coach Jason Hess, who was an assistant at AHS for 10 years before taking over after Fralick’s departure.
“You could see Tim’s growth and maturity as a coach grow over his five years here. He’s one of those guys that always was working to get better at what he does.”
That mentality makes sense for a guy like Fralick, whose 75-year-old father is still coaching varsity basketball in Michigan, closing in on 500 career wins.
Tim’s 2014-15 Arrows set what then was the AHS record for 3-pointers in a season (195, 8.1 per game) and their 16-point average scoring margin (66.3-50.2) remains the widest since the 1969-70 squad.
Only twice did Tim’s Ashland team of a decade ago allow more than 59 points.
“It was really unique the way (the contributing talent in) that group was spread across three grades,” Hess said, “and the fact that we had three guys (Isaac White, Brett Vipperman and Trey Smith) who went on to play college basketball out of that senior class.
“That season really had an impact on so many lives – not only on our kids, but the coaches as much as anybody.”
Ashland’s lone losses that year came to Division I regional qualifiers Medina (season-opener) and Lima Senior (district championship game).
In five seasons leading the Arrows, Tim was 59-56 overall, a number skewed by a 2-19 first year. Ashland was 48-24 combined during his final three seasons.
But in the wake of the groundbreaking 2014-15 campaign, a sea change for basketball in Ashland was coming.
Robyn takes over AU women’s powerhouse
While Tim Fralick was busy building his head coaching resume at AHS, Robyn Fralick was one of the critical assistant coaches under legendary Ashland University women’s basketball head coach Sue Ramsey.
Robyn had arrived at AU in 2008 and was part of the staff that helped guide the Eagles to national championship games in both 2012 and 2013.
At that time, Ashland was in the infancy of building what has evolved into “juggernaut” status, led by two historic seasons from current AU head coach Kari Daugherty Pickens.
Robyn was named an associate head coach prior to the 2011-12 campaign and was leaned on by Ramsey to help handle recruiting, workouts with the team’s guards and scouting reports.
She said constructing those reports was like putting together a research paper. Robyn spent so much time on them that she joked that she had a “strong relationship with her MAC computer.”
In the fall of 2014, Ramsey announced that her 20th season as head coach of the Eagles would be her last. She said then that the fact that Robyn would be succeeding her helped make the decision much easier.
The 2014-15 Eagles ended up in the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years, finishing with a 25-9 record after their loss in the regional title game to No. 4-ranked Lewis.
Ramsey totaled a 367-217 record during her time at AU before confidently passing the baton to Fralick, who had been receiving interest to lead college programs elsewhere.
One of the new AU head coach’s first moves was to bring her husband, Tim, onto her staff as an assistant coach.
“You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it when you’re doing it, but I loved those kids, I loved those teams, I loved my staff,” Robyn said Tuesday. “… Those sorts of things feel tender – I feel grateful.
“I had never been a head coach and somebody took a chance on me. A lot of people don’t get that opportunity, and I was lucky that Ashland took a chance on both me and Tim.”
Looking back 10 years now, it was a significant inflection point for basketball in the Ashland community.
Hess took over the AHS boys program and Robyn and Tim set sail on what turned into one of the most statistically mind-boggling three-year runs in the history of men’s or women’s college basketball.
Eagles build dynasty with Robyn at helm
It took zero time for Robyn Fralick to make her mark.
The Eagles finished 31-2 in her first winter leading the way, as budding sophomore stars Andi Daugherty and Laina Snyder had AU ranked No. 3 in the nation at season’s end.
Ashland lost at home to 14th-ranked Drury in the Midwest Regional semifinals on March 12, 2016. It was the only home loss in three seasons under Robyn for the Eagles, who – even more impressively – didn’t lose again until the national championship game more than two years later.
In between, AU posted the first 37-0 season in Division II women’s basketball history (2016-17) and had the longest Division II winning streak in history (73 games).
The 2017-18 team scored the most total points in a women’s college basketball season (3,644, 98.5 per game), surpassing a record set by the infamous University of Connecticut at the time.
Robyn was a two-time Division II Coach of the Year. Meanwhile, she and Tim had a growing family, with son Will (now 11) and daughter Clara (now 8) in tow.
“Those were some of my favorite years coaching,” Robyn said. “Tim was still working up at the high school, we had two little kids; Will would be there and I had Clara in my little carry sack. I was always way more serious than Tim.
“We really balanced each other. … Then we had our kids in there with us and we were fortunate to be (coaches at AU) where they let us do that.”
All told, the Eagles played in four of the seven Division II national championship games between 2012 and 2018, winning the title in 2013 and 2017.
Robyn was there for all of them.
Her 104-3 record in three years as a head coach was nearly inconceivable, giving her the highest winning percentage in NCAA history at any level (minimum 100 games coached).
“When I zoom out and you look at the coaching career, it’s just absolutely wild that that was how it started,” she said. “That’s usually the pursuit in coaching, so to have it happen immediately (was crazy).”
One piece of the AU puzzle during Robyn’s three seasons as head coach was area product Renee Stimpert Holt, a Crestview graduate. The standout guard was an underclassman on the coach’s final two teams at Ashland and has since become the girls basketball coach at Ashland High School (now in her fifth season).
She said Tim Fralick had a massive impact on her growth, as he worked with AU’s guards.
“I remember watching (his 22-2 season at AHS) and I went to one game and I loved his style of play,” Holt said. “They were up in peoples’ faces, they were pushing the ball, and that’s how I played. I adored that.
“Then when I got to AU, he kind of took me under his wing and taught me the ropes of what he coached at Ashland High School. And then I sprinkled in some of the defensive mind from Robyn and it was just a complete package.”
Holt said it was fun to have a front-row seat to such a talented wife-husband coaching tandem. She said Robyn helped build team chemistry and was fantastic at letting players shine in their specific roles.
Tim, meanwhile, was a confidence-boosting coach who even played on the scout team for the Eagles.
Both of them helped raise the ceiling of Holt’s talents. She is the only Eagle ever to post more than 200 assists in a single season, and she did it three times.
Her 839 career assists rank in the Top 10 in Division II history and she also had 1,225 points at Ashland.
“They’re just a power couple,” Holt said of the Fralicks. “They were goofy, they would make remarks back and forth and just laugh at each other. But then they were competitive.
“The girls and guys (who played for them), they wanted to work as hard as they could and be the best they could be, because of the work the Fralicks put in behind the scenes.”
In the years since, guided by Pickens – who both played and coached under Robyn – Ashland won the 2023 Division II crown with another 37-0 record. The Eagles also were 31-0 and set to host the Midwest Regional tournament in 2020 when that season was canceled due to Covid-19.
A new legacy
The Fralicks both said they would have been happy to stay in Ashland, but when Robyn was approached by Bowling Green State University for the women’s head coaching job there, the fit seemed right.
It was a new challenge for her at the NCAA Division I level and in the Mid-American Conference. It also moved their family closer to its roots in Michigan.
Robyn’s time with the Falcons covered five seasons and featured a much more ground-up evolution than what she experienced at AU.
Bowling Green was 9-21 in her first season and 10-21 in her second before taking off in 2020-21. Robyn was named MAC Coach of the Year after posting a 21-8 record and a MAC title with three freshman starters.
“There were plenty of moments (early at BGSU) where I thought, ‘What am I doing? Is this going to work? Why would I leave somewhere where I know it works?’” Robyn said. “But all of that makes you a better coach.”
While Robyn built onto her coaching legacy, Tim constructed his own company, Be Transformed Basketball, within the Bowling Green community.
It started with basketball training sessions and expanded to offer competitive youth travel teams, basketball camps and clinics, and even adult basketball fitness classes.
He’s still running the business today and has even spent some time with the Ashland High School programs and others around the area.
Back at BGSU with Robyn, myriad injuries hindered Bowling Green’s 2021-22 campaign (17-16), but the Falcons exploded for a 31-7 mark in 2022-23, tying the school and MAC records for most single-season victories.
Bowling Green advanced to the Final Four of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament that year.
Once again, the success led to a huge move for the Fralick family.
In March 2023, Robyn was named the sixth women’s basketball head coach in Michigan State University history. The job landed her an office that sits less than 10 minutes away from her childhood home in Okemos, Mich.
She said she was able to bring her entire staff from Bowling Green while also filling a few more positions.
“The game and practice and building a system and building a team and all of that looks a lot alike,” Robyn said. “I think there’s just a way bigger spotlight.”
For a coach who came of age inside Ashland University’s Kates Gymnasium, everyday life now includes things like million-dollar contracts, NIL deals, regular podcast and TV appearances, and the transfer portal.
It’s a bit of a surreal reality. Robyn works across the hall from men’s basketball coaching icon Tom Izzo, a Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer with more than 700 wins in his 30th season leading the Spartans.
“Before every game, you’re worried, your adrenaline’s pumping and you’re thinking, ‘How do people do this?’” Robyn said. “… Every game brings out all the feelings and it’s an emotional journey, that’s for sure.
“But then I go home, my kids have soccer practice, there’s laundry. I just feel like I’m a person who coaches basketball, so I haven’t really thought (about being in a high-profile position).”
Last season, Robyn’s Spartans went 22-9 and she became the first MSU women’s basketball coach to make the NCAA Tournament in her first season.
This year, she has Michigan State ranked No. 21 in the country at 15-3. The Spartans’ 11-0 start was the best in program history and their longest win streak in over a decade.
It will get tougher from here for MSU, competing in a powerhouse Big Ten that features four teams in the nation’s Top 10 (UCLA, USC, Maryland and Ohio State).
Robyn’s squad will have to play three of those teams in an 11-day span in February, including a road game Feb. 26 at Ohio State.
Remembering where it all began
For both of the Fralicks, looking back now, the entire journey from this moment 10 years ago while living in Ashland has been an unfathomable progression.
It went from an Ohio Cardinal Conference title in 2015 to a 37-0 NCAA Division II finish in 2017 to one of the biggest possible stages in all of women’s basketball today.
The domino effect is one they both said they never could have thought to imagine.
When combined, the overall record of Tim’s final season at Ashland High School and Robyn’s three seasons at Ashland University is 126-5.
“Wins are hard to come by at any level, so to look at the record that they put together … it’s just really hard to fathom the level of excellence that they had here,” Hess said. “And despite that, they’re the same people they were the day I met them, no matter where the game has taken them.”
Tim, who grew up a Michigan State fan because his mom went there, said he was watching one of Robyn’s practices with the Spartans just last week. He pointed out to his kids that during part of the workout, the team was running one of the same defensive presses he installed with the Arrows a decade ago.
It’s those types of snapshot moments that he said sometimes make him pause and reflect.
“(Leaving the Ashland High School job) was a tough decision for me, but it was the right decision for our family,” Tim said. “And I got an opportunity to be a part of her special run (at AU).
“We’ve definitely talked about (the basketball success) and other core memories we have from there. I wouldn’t take it back for anything.”
Robyn now has more than 300 games under her belt as a 10th-year college head coach, boasting a 229-88 overall record (.722 winning percentage).
She was inducted into the Ashland University Athletics Hall of Fame in October, an honor that brought the Fralicks back to town.
It came with a flood of memories that only intensified when considering that Ashland was where their family began and their basketball coaching careers first took hold.
“We loved Ashland and it was really hard to leave,” Robyn said. “… A lot has happened, and it just feels like it happened in a blink.”
