Carla Siegel chased her first state championship for 14 years, but she’s won four in the last 11 seasons after Saturday’s Division IV win over Waterford. ({PressPros Feature Photo by Julie McMaken Wright).
When players demand more of themselves than their coaches, even when those coaches have a vault full of championship trophies, it’s no coincidence the tradition and culture of Fort Loramie girls basketball shines a bit brighter after a fourth state championship.
Veteran columnist Bruce Hooley writes Ohio State basketball and sports at large for Press Pros Magazine.com.
Dayton, OH – It’s not all that uncommon for happy couples to renew their wedding vows on their anniversary, celebrating where they’ve advanced in the marriage by revisiting how it all began.
Head coach Carla Siegel and her Fort Loramie Redskins might not have known that’s what they did Saturday, but their fourth Division IV state championship in school history happened to fall on the exact anniversary of the first’s arrival on March 16, 2013.
Before dismissing that fact as coincidental, or merely a footnote to Loramie’s 42-29 conquest of Waterford, consider the direct link between Siegel’s first title back in 2013 and this latest crown’s arrival in h
er silver anniversary season with the Redskins.
When Loramie took down Berlin Hiland 11 years ago to the day, it did so thanks in large part to guard Darian Rose’s 19 points and a stifling defense that held Hiland to just 33% shooting.
Saturday, Darian’s little sister, Jaden, directed the Redskins’ offense with five assists and played the tip of the spear out front on a defense that forced a decisive 14 first-half turnovers, leading to 16 of Loramie’s first 20 points.
Playing great defense, a tradition at Loramie, is a vow every Redskins player must renew and a bedrock value that resonates across the two and one-half decades Siegel has set the standard.
Such sticky coverage built a nine-point lead at the break, an advantage the Redskins would expand to 13 with a 6-2 burst to start the third quarter, with two of those baskets coming directly off additional Waterford turnovers.
With Loramie now in front, 26-13, it was all over but the net-cutting, something Siegel has done often, but never routinely, since waiting 14 years as a head coach for her first such experience climbing the ultimate ladder of success in high school girls’ hoops.
It’s sometimes hard to tell which is more dominant over its opponent..Fort Loramie’s team or its student section
“I coach for the girls; I don’t coach for me,” said Siegel, flanked by senior captains Avery Brandewie and Rose in the post-game press conference. “This might be the fourth for the program, but it’s her (Brandewie’s) first one and it’s her (Rose’s) first one. I’m just so proud for all the seniors that they get to go out with a win in their last game. That’s something you can hold onto forever.”
Rose confessed to dreaming about it ever since a potential game-winning, half-court heave in last season’s regional title loss to eventual state champion Tri-Village went in-and-out at the final buzzer.
“Last year sucked,” Rose said. “But we came back and did this today. It’s a great feeling.”
Siegel winced a bit at that comment. Hence, though Rose’s season and career were now officially over, the coach felt compelled to offer one last bit of instruction.
“So,” Siegel said with a wry smile, “last year for us did not suck. It was a pretty good season. I think we lost three games. It was a rebuilding year for us.
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“We had graduated 13 girls from 2020 and 2021. At one point, we were 12-0 and I remember looking at my coaches and saying, ‘Holy Cow, maybe we are better than we as coaches thought we were going to be.’
“So, last year was not a bad year, Jaden. But she lost, OK. So now she’s a winner, so she’ll be happy forever.”
You know you have high standards in a program when the players expect even more than the coaches who lead them.
Junior Victoria Mescher was outstanding on defense, and will no doubt be a big part of Loramie’s efforts to repeat in 2025.
“I’m proud for them,” Siegel said. “For the program. For all the little girls that were in the stands today that want to be like these guys. Our water girls adore these young ladies.
“They’re in the locker room screaming. I think they baked cookies for them on Tuesday and so it’s that, tradition, word that everyone throws around. The, culture, word. This big victory, it’s not just for us today, it’s for all the little girls in the stands.”
That culture and tradition must start somewhere, of course, and it must have someone to chart the course for its progression.
Back in 2013, when Siegel claimed her first championship with the Redskins, Hiland and legendary coach Dave Schlabach were the gold standard of small-school girls basketball in Ohio with four state titles.
Siegel has now matched that total – a fact not lost on Waterford coach Jerry Close.
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“If we’re going to lose a state tournament game, I want to lose to Fort Loramie or Berlin Hiland,” Close said. “They’re the best in the state. I think we’ve put ourselves as one of those as well.
“I’m 0-2 against Carla now. We were able to get Hiland this year (in the regional finals). Year in and year out, it’s nothing but respect for those other two programs. That’s what I’ve been chasing for my entire career, the Slaybaughs and then Carla.”
Loramie senior Skyler Albers wasn’t shy about going into traffic against 6-4 Avery Wagner of Waterford, typifying the toughness of the Redskins at both ends.
Clearly, the marriage of Siegel and Loramie basketball is thriving, as evidenced by her now 546-125 record in 25 years as the head coach, which followed five seasons as an assistant for the Redskins before that.
As you’d expect, over three decades in a program in a small school where graduates return to make lives of their own, the family ties run deep.
Brandewie – who led the Redskins with 17 points – had a sister, Colleen, play on Siegel’s 2021 state championship team.
Victoria Mescher, who anchored Loramie’s coverage in the paint with her seven steals and cumbersome coverage of 6-4 Waterford center Avery Wagner, has a mom who played for the Redskins in Siegel’s first season as an assistant.
Summer Hoying, a senior who shook off foul problems to score six of her eight points in the fourth quarter to salt away the win, likewise is the daughter of a mom who played on the first team Siegel served as an assistant.
Junior Ariel Heitkamp, Loramie’s first sub off the bench, had sisters Corynn and Riley claim state championship medals before her in 2021.
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“I can’t tell you how many text messages I got this past week from former players,” Siegel said. “They remember this feeling. They hope the girls grab it. I just wanted them to remember how special this moment was, and all their hard work.
“Our practices are not easy. We work hard. I want them to carry that with them the rest of their lives. A lot of my players are successful once they graduate from college, because hard work pays off.
“Determination pays off. Go get what you want and enjoy it. Enjoy the moment. I think that’s what this senior class has done. Some of them didn’t play these last few games, but they still were in practice working just as hard as everybody else. I think that’s important for our program.”
2024 OHSAA Division IV Girls State Basketball Champs – Fort Loramie Redskins
Though she’d be loathe to admit it or claim credit for it, Siegel is the driver of that culture.
She is a demanding coach with high standards, but perhaps not as high as the parents of those little girls screaming in celebration of Loramie’s latest title after it was secure.
“The rumor mill is circulating at Loramie about how much longer I’ll be coaching,” Siegel said. “I don’t know. They say, ‘You’ll know when you know.’ But I really don’t know.
“Some of these girls have sisters who are fifth-grade, sixth-grade, seventh-grade, eighth-grade. And those parents are like, ‘You can’t (quit coaching yet).’ I tell them, I can’t promise you anything. ‘They say you’ll know when you know.’ All I know right now is that I have four more years of teaching before I retire.”
She also knows it’s time to make a bit more room in the trophy case.
Avery Bradewie had 8 rebounds and 17 points in the state final win over Waterford.
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