HARWELLPHOTO.COM

St. Vincent-St. Mary won a state title in all three sports seasons this school year, including one in boys basketball with a victory over Dayton Thurgood Marshall in the championship game.

AKRON, Ohio – How good was it athletically at St. Vincent-St. Mary during the recently-completed school year?

At least in one respect – and we emphasize the phrase “one respect” – it was truly unique. Some would even say – again, in that “one respect” -- that it was arguably the greatest overall year sports-wise in school history. That can – and no doubt will – be debated, but there’s no doubt this year was significant historically in the SportsInk.com coverage area, and also on a statewide basis.

St. Vincent-St. Mary is one of just three schools in the history of the Ohio High School Athletic Association – and the first in 14 years -- to have won a team state championship in each of three sports seasons (fall, winter and spring) during a single school year. The Fighting Irish captured three state crowns, all in Division II, in girls cross country in the fall, boys basketball in the winter and boys track in the spring.

The two other schools in history to have had across-the-board success like that, with a state title in all three sports seasons in a single school year, are Upper Arlington, in the Columbus suburbs, and Cleveland Benedictine.

Upper Arlington, the only school in history to have four team state crowns in a school year, in 1986-87, won in both boys golf and girls cross country in the fall, boys swimming and diving in the winter and baseball in the spring. It will be hard for any school to ever duplicate that feat of having captured four, as evidenced by the fact that it hasn’t happened in the nearly quarter-century since.  

Benedictine’s three state crowns came in 1996-97 – football in the fall, boys basketball in the winter and boys track in the spring.

A school has captured at least three state titles in a school year -- in any combination of sports seasons -- a total of 19 times in Ohio history. Six times it has been done by a school in the SportsInk.com coverage area. Walsh Jesuit owns three of those times, which is the most in state history.

The Warriors’ first run came 20 years ago, in the 1990-91 school year, when they won in boys soccer and boys golf in the fall, followed by wrestling in the winter. They did not win a team title in the spring.

It was 11 years later, in 2001-02, that Walsh came back and won in girls soccer and girls golf in the fall, and softball in the spring. Then in 2004-05, the school captured championships in girls soccer and girls golf again, and in girls basketball in the winter.

Of the 19 schools to win at least three state titles in the same school year, Walsh, in 2001-02 and 2004-05, is one of just two boys/girls schools that had all three of its crowns in one gender. The other is Worthington Thomas Worthington, which also had three girls championships in field hockey, gymnastics and girls swimming and diving in the 1988-89 school year.

Cincinnati St. Ursula Academy, an all-girls school, captured three state titles in consecutive years, 1993-94 and 1994-95.

For the record, Walsh has won 22 boys team state championships and 16 girls crowns for a total of 38 overall. In addition, the Warriors have seven national titles – four in wrestling, consecutively from 1993-96, and three in girls soccer in 2000, 2006 and 2010.  

Archbishop Hoban, another Greater Akron area parochial power, captured three titles, in volleyball, boys track and softball, in 1991-92.

The Knights have 14 team state titles overall, including six in softball and four in volleyball.

Kent Roosevelt, the only local public school on the list of 19, actually became the first school in history to win three state titles in a single year, doing so in boys cross country, field hockey and ice hockey.

Moreover, if you include all of Northeast Ohio, then “local” schools own 11 of the 19 times that three state titles have been won in a single school year.

But in the SportsInk.com coverage area, only St. Vincent-St. Mary has garnered a title in each sports season in a single school year, and we’ve just witnessed it.

STVM was historically significant in the state in another way this school year, as this was just the 13th time overall – and the first in 10 years -- that a school won a state championship in boys basketball and followed that up with a state crown in boys track in the same school year. No other school from the SportsInk.com coverage area has ever done that.

But there’s even more to the story at St. Vincent-St. Mary. Consider that in 2010-11, there were also these accomplishments:

*The boys cross country team finished as state runner-up.

*The girls track team captured third place in the state.

*The wrestling team placed fifth in the state.

*The girls basketball team and the boys and girls soccer squads all played in district championship games.

*The baseball and softball teams made it to the district semifinals.

*The football team earned a berth in the state playoffs and advanced to the second round.

STVM has been known for decades for its tradition in football. As such, it seems odd that when the school wins three state titles in a year, none of them are in football. But that’s not a negative. It just shows the way the complete sports program at the school has grown and developed over the years. Football no longer has to carry the school’s moniker all by itself. In fact, there are plenty of sports to help, which would make any athletic director proud, including St. Vincent-St. Mary’s Andy Jalwan.

“Going into last school year – actually, about this time last year – we knew we had a special group of senior athletes overall,” Jalwan said. “We also knew we had a special group of coaches as a whole, including Dan Lancianese in boys and girls cross country and track and Dru Joyce in boys basketball.

“We looked at the quality of those senior athletes and the quality of the coaches, and knew that it was a special situation. We didn’t have our sights set on winning a certain amount of state championships or anything, but as the year went along, we knew we were in the midst of something rare.

“It turned out to be a great year, what with all the trips to Columbus to see our teams compete at state, and we made sure to try to enjoy it as much as possible.”

What’s not to enjoy if the Fighting Irish are your team?

But as the years change from one to the other, teams and athletes change, too.

Change is the only constant, really. Nothing ever stays the same.

Well, almost nothing.

While Jalwan says, and understandably so, “We’re going to really miss those seniors,” there is also something that others – many others – have said for a long time, and it is that, “Tradition doesn’t graduate.”

Especially at schools steeped in such.

So the teams at St. Vincent-St. Mary – and all the new seniors, juniors, sophomores and freshmen -- get a chance to build on that tradition and do it all again in about seven weeks when the next sports year begins.    

 Just hope they realize how high the bar has now been set.