Positivity: Remembering the prep team that beat LeBron
These guys are local Cincinnati legends, and deservedly so (2002 post-game article is here):
CINCINNATI — LeBron James has everything, doesn’t he?
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ all-star has a 35,000-square-foot house under construction. He has awe-inspiring, wide-ranging basketball skills that elicit comparisons to Jordan, Robertson and Magic.
The 22-year-old also has finally stepped into the NBA Finals spotlight.
Yet there is a group that proudly knows firsthand that LeBron — who also goes by “King James” — doesn’t really have it all.
Even if he leads the Cavaliers to their first NBA title, LeBron will never get back the Ohio state title the boys — now men — of Roger Bacon High School took from him in 2002. The loss meant that James left high school with only three championships instead of a perfect four.
“It’s incredible thinking about it, watching him now,” said Josh Hausfeld, a senior on that Spartans team. “Down here at my job, whenever we have to introduce ourselves and say something interesting, I always think of that first. It’s awesome to see people’s reactions. At first, they don’t believe you. Then I say, ‘Well, that’s why they film the games.’ ”
Hausfeld remembers clearly the first time he and his Roger Bacon teammates played LeBron’s prep team, Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary, during the 2001-02 season.
LeBron was a junior and on his way to stardom before skipping college and going straight to the NBA. The game was in December at Kent State University, two months before LeBron would appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated for the first time, at age 17.
Surprisingly to everyone but the Spartans players, Roger Bacon played rough and tough with LeBron and friends. Hausfeld even swatted away one of LeBron’s layup attempts. The Irish, whom LeBron previously led to state championships in 2000 and 2001, won that game, but keen basketball observers left the gym with unexpected respect for head coach Bill Brewer’s Roger Bacon team.
Frank Jessie, who now lives in Montgomery, Ohio, was the St. Vincent-St. Mary athletics director. He approached Brewer after the game.
“I said ‘Bill, I hope I don’t see you in Columbus,’ ” Jessie recalls.
But what would the story be without a rematch? Of course they met again — in the Division II state title game March 23, 2002.
LeBron, newly christened “The Chosen One” by Sports Illustrated, and St. Vincent-St. Mary were going for a threepeat. A record 18,375 came out to Ohio State’s Schottenstein Center to witness.
What they saw was spectacular.
Roger Bacon’s Beckham Wyrick sent a forearm into LeBron’s chest to open the game, signaling the Spartans’ spunk for all to see. This was the best team clashing with the best player, and the best team won, 71-63.
LeBron scored 32, but it wasn’t nearly enough to match Roger Bacon’s balanced scoring from Hausfeld, Wyrick, Monty St. Clair and Frank Phillips.
LeBron was supposed to win four state titles. He got three, winning his final crown the following season.
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