Eleven seniors wore the gold and blue for the now state-champion Russia Raiders this season. Some you know, others you may not. But behind the scenes, it took all 11 to become 29-0 Division VII state champions.
Following state championship games, a coach and two to three key players from each team take the postgame press conference stage.
The Russia Raiders had other plans.
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After Russia’s 74-57 state championship victory over Cornerstone Christian, head coach Spencer Cordonnier surrounded himself onstage with all 11 of his seniors.
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It would’ve been easier to just bring his son Braylon, who scored 22 points, and Dominic Francis who scored 21 and grabbed eight rebounds.There were five seats, so he could’ve let Vince Borchers and Ben York tag along to field questions on guarding the best player they’d faced all year.
But no, all 11 filed in: Braylon Cordonnier, Dominic Francis, Ben York, Vince Borchers, Jaxon Grogean, Zeb Schulze, Landon Monnin, Landon Pleiman, Zeb Borchers, Micah Grieshop, and Caleb Unverferth.
“These kids are winners,” Head Coach Spencer Cordonnier said. “All 11 of them are winners.”
He’s said that before they were state champions, because they’re a group that knows how to win, and has the will to get it done. But now, it’s true in the most literal sense. They won all there is to be won. You can’t be more of a winner than a 29-0 state champion.
The journey to becoming champions looked different for each of the 11. Some played the last two years as the Raiders fell consecutively to Richmond Heights in the Division IV state semifinals. Others watched and waited.
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Even this year some mostly spectated and encouraged from the sideline on game day. If playing time were bread, there wouldn’t be enough to feed 11 hungry mouths. But for Cordonnier, those who starved belonged on the same stage as those who feasted.
“I told those guys that don’t get to play that much that I’m sorry that this is how it went down this year,” Cordonnier said. “We talked about it the first day of practice. There are 11 of you. I can’t play all of you. That’s really hard to look at a kid and tell him that before the season even starts …I never heard one word. That speaks to how they’ve been raised to handle that, and how close they’ve been with each other over these years.”
“We talked about it the first day of practice. There are 11 of you. I can’t play all of you. That’s really hard to look at a kid and tell him that before the season even starts …I never heard one word. That speaks to how they’ve been raised to handle that, and how close they’ve been with each other over these years.” – Spencer Cordonnier
Guys like Pleiman, Grieshop, Unverferth and Zeb Borchers embraced their roles that wouldn’t include playing in critical moments, but rather driving their teammates to be the best that they can be.
“It’s pretty special to be a part of this team,” Unverferth said. “We play together and just have fun. Even off the court we hang out and watch basketball and football.”
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You can’t help but wonder how many times the conversation at those hangouts turned to the dream of a state championship, and how many more times those two hours on Saturday evening will be relived.
When the team traveled up to Bowling Green for the state semifinals, the normal shootaround was replaced by a scrimmage between the A-squad and the scout team.
“The scout team just beat the daylights out of [the starters],” Cordonnier said. “Those guys got us prepared for Friday, and they did the same thing this week.”
They are a state-champion crew of bench players.
“They were definitely huge for us all year,” Vince Borchers said. “They play great defense in practice and work so much harder than you would ever imagine.”
It’s not by accident the starters show up sharp on game day. For instance, Russia’s guards always precede deliberate passes with believable pass fakes to manipulate the defense. That’s a habit formed in practice because from benchwarmers to starters, Russia basketball players know how to make you pay for lazy passes.
“This was a team effort all around,” York said. “I wouldn’t want to do it with anyone else but these guys.”
Back on February 15 when the Raiders completed their perfect regular season, Braylon Cordonnier was asked what it took to get to 22-0.
“I gotta give credit to the guys that don’t play as much sometimes,” Cordonnier said. “They’re the ones that push us to get better. They might not realize the impact they have on us.”
“If World War III breaks out, I’m going straight to Russia High School. Give me those kids, and we’re gonna be OK.” – Cornerstone coach, Babe Kwasniak
In return for their relentless effort in practice, those seniors got a seat on the thrill ride to 29-0.
“Being a part of a team like this is something special that not many people get to do,” Zeb Borchers said. “You see so many teams where their chemistry isn’t quite like ours … I don’t get to play a ton, but I don’t even care because just watching these guys makes me so happy, like watching Dom [Francis] get a dunk or Vince [Borchers] cross a guy up.”
It’s one thing to watch a teammate make a play when that teammate is just some guy who happened to transfer to the same private high school as you. It’s another thing to watch your best friend from Kindergarten who’s played on your basketball team every year since first grade helps propel your school to a state title in front of your entire town.
“These guys have accomplished so much in their four years athletically,” Cordonnier said. “But the biggest thing is how good of human beings they’ve become, and how humble they’ve stayed. They’re not flashy. They play the game the right way, and they’re the epitome of team basketball.”
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That applies even more so to those who don’t have all the physical gifts but put in 100% effort and gave what they had every day. He who is faithful with little will be faithful with much.
“They’re all different personalities,” Cordonnier said, reflecting on what he would miss about his gang of seniors. “We were at Coach Francis’ house watching March Madness, and they’re cracking on each other and telling jokes. This is really the first team I’ve ever had where I can probably say whatever I want to them. They’re like ‘That’s just Spencer.’ They’re all special. Every single one of them has special traits. They come into practice every day and number 11 is working just as hard as number one.”
But if he’s a biased judge of character, here’s what Cornerstone Christian’s head coach, Babe Kwasniak, said in the opening line of his postgame presser:
“Those kids are everything that’s right about high school basketball. There’s a lot not going right with our sport at every level … Those kids just love to compete and they love each other, and man were they good. They were so good … I’m so happy for those guys because I feel like that’s a win for Ohio basketball because those guys are everything that’s right about this game. So congratulations to them, couldn’t be more deserving.”
As high as that praise was, he went even higher.
“If World War III breaks out, I’m going straight to Russia High School. Give me those kids, and we’re gonna be OK,” Kwasniak said.
There aren’t many places in this country where high schoolers are spoken of in that way by West Point graduates like Kwasniak. Russia, Ohio, is one of the places, and the basketball class of 2025 has 11 of those boys.
“I won’t be able to call them teammates after this day,” Dominic Francis said. “But I’m still gonna hang out with them every day at school, and every day at recess.”
York snatched the mic to clarify that Russia High School does not, in fact, have recess. If it did, there wouldn’t be room for any underclassmen at the basketball hoop. It’d be taken … taken by 11 seniors who will always be champions.
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