COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Beechcroft Cougars (23-1) wrapped up regular season with a hard-fought 61-60 victory over Dayton Belmont on the road. The win cemented a unanimous number one seeding at the District II seeding meeting. A late season win over Mifflin gave the Cougars a school regular season record total surpassing the Devin Green and Mike Brown led Cougars of 2001 that finished the season 17-3 and 18-4 overall, before falling to Dublin Coffman in the district semi-final. 

The 2000-01 team was a killer. Led by Green, a 6-foot-7 guard, who had moved to Columbus in the summer of 2000 after playing the sixth man role for Akron Buchtel High School the previous season. Buchtel was a top ten team in the state going 17-2 in the regular season during the 1999-2000 season, in which Green had played an integral part in a huge win over Columbus Brookhaven and Andrew Lavender at Whitehall. He ended that season averaging 10 points and 10 rebounds a game for Buchtel. 

Green enrolled at Columbus Beechcroft the following summer when his guardian, George Maxey, moved to Columbus to become a vice principal for the Columbus City Schools. 

He joined an undersized Beechcroft team which had went 6-17 the season before under their first-year head coach, Kent Burgert. His transfer was joined by the transfer of 6-foot-2 junior guard Josh Rohrbacher from rural Beaver (OH) Eastern High School who provided two immediate new starters in the line-up. Their infusion into the lineup gave the team a totally different outlook going into the 2000-2001, even after dealing with an upset season opening  44-40 loss at Worthington Kilbourne in which Green was called for four first-half fouls and held under ten points. 

The transfer tandem joined returning junior forward Mike Brown who would end his career with more than 1000 points and nearly 700 rebounds over three varsity seasons. Brown would go on play for and graduate from West Virginia State University. His 16.5 points per game as a junior was a strong counterpart to the high-scoring Green. His regular season finale performance at home against Eastmoor was arguably the greatest individual game in school history when he scored 34 points and grabbed 15 rebounds on 15-15 shooting from the field and highlighted by five monster alley-oop dunks. 

The 2001 Cougars responded to the upset by Kilbourne by winning 18 of their next 20 games, dropping only two league games to City Champion and state powerhouse Brookhaven. Green, who signed with Hampton University averaged 23 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists per game during his final campaign. He is still the only player in school history to ink an NBA contract, doing so during the 2005-06 season after a successful collegiate career at Hampton. He followed that with an extended professional career playing internationally. 

The 2001 team would fall in the D1 Central District semi-final game against Dublin Coffman despite Green outscoring their junior All-Ohio guard Chris Quinn 16-7 for the game. Quinn was held scoreless the first three quarters due to the stifling defense of forward Mike Brown, but the Shamrocks were still able to pull out a low scoring ugly win behind the play of senior guard Brett Bandow. 

The next record this year's Cougar squad passed was the record for total wins in a season which was owned by the the 2002-03 Beechcroft team who finished with a 20-5 record. They were the third Beechcroft team to reach the state final four in a five year stretch and were led by senior shooting guard DeQuan Owens and 6-foot-2 senior post players James Lloyd and Wayne Dudley. Owens who would go on to star at Otterbein College led the best defensive unit in school history, while offensively he literally put the team on his back. 

The 2003 team again coached by Burgert had a narrow but satisfying win in the district championship over Columbus East who had garnered more honors after the regular season. Owens, who no doubt had a chip on his shoulder after being snubbed for Central District D2 Player of the year by East's flashy point guard Cyrus Smith, left no doubt he was the area's premier D2 guard in their district championship win in which Smith began to lose his cool in frustration. 

From there, Owens led the Cougars to two convincing wins over Gallipolis Gallia Academy and East Liverpool in the Athens D2 regional. The ladder game allowed Owens to outduel the Potter's all-state guard Josh Reed who would go on to play at Eastern Kentucky. 

The confident 2003 unit matched up against Kettering Alter for the second time in five years in the D2 state semifinal in front of a huge crowd at the Shottenstein Center in Columbus. Alter was led by 6-foot-5 guard Doug Penno who would play at Miami (Ohio) and legendary coach Joe Petrocelli who is arguably the greatest coach in OHSAA history.

In an ugly defensive struggle, the Cougars who made a strong 4th quarter comeback fell short of defeating Alter who hung on for the win 53-45 behind Penno's 25 points. Owens' who had outdueled every superb guard in his path during the tourney run, finally met his match being held to 13 points. The loss cost Beechcroft to miss the opportunity to play the LeBron James and his #1 nationally ranked Akron St.Vincent St. Mary unit in the championship game. ASVSM would narrowly beat Alter by four points to win the mythical high school national championship in the process. 

The fact that the Cougars returned to the final four in 2003 was a credit to Burgert who got his team to recover from a devastating 83-32 defeat in the state semifinals the previous year to Cincinnati Roger Bacon. Roger Bacon would roll to the state title defeating ASVSM and James in the state title game. The 2002 Bacon team is arguably the best D2 team in state history as they convincingly outplayed James' team in the championship game. They were the only Ohio team to defeat ASVSM in James' four-year career fron 2000-2003. 

The 2002 Cougars were led by Mike Brown and Rohrbacher and were the true school Cinderella unit. They were a mediocre 12-8 during the regular season with the only real bright spot being the play of Brown who gained All-Ohio honors averaging 20 points and 12 rebounds a game. 

Brown and his senior teammates Rohrbacher, Damien Hughes, Kevin Stewart and Josh Moore simply took their play to a different level in tourney play. They had opening sectional wins over talented Licking Valley and Lakewood. The Licking Valley game was an 84-78 instant classic win in which the Cougars would lose their junior guard Owens to a hip injury for the season. Lakewood 6-foot-10 center Allen Pinson who would attend Toledo simply had no answer for Brown in the post in the sectional final. 

Brown got the Cougars their fourth all-time district title in a win of Columbus Linden-McKinley in which he outdueled center John Davis who had received more post season honors than Brown. 

A huge underdog going into the 2002 underdog D2 Athens Regional, the Cougars pulled off two of the biggest upsets in school history to claim their second regional title in school history. The first upset came over Dover, who only had lost two games heading to Athens. In a game that Dover led for thirty minutes, Brown made what Burgert always called the greatest play in school history when he left his man and deflected a pass that ended in a scrum at halfcourt for the loose ball. Brown out-muscled the Dover players to come up with the ball while regaining his dribble and going in for a game winning layup with Dover defenders draped all over him. 

Burgert then utilized a triangle and two defense in the 2002 regional final contest against undefeated Washington Court House. Guards Rohrbacher and Moore played stifling defense on all-state guards Dustin Pfeiffer and Jeff Smallwood on the way to a dominating 81-50 victory. The margin of victory was the largest in the history of any Athens regional game. 

The Cougars 2002 march would end in a harsh reality check against state champion Roger Bacon where they were beaten by one if the largest margins in final four history. Brown would finish the 83-32 game with a career-low two points on 1-11 shooting. The game left the team mentally devastated, almost putting a bad taste on what had been the team's amazing Cinderella run. 

The 2004 team was simply one of the greatest in school history. They were a team expected to go to a final four after enrolling as freshman during the 2001 season. Going into the 2003-04 srason, the veteran unit had already been to two consecutive final fours. The Burgert team led by four point guards and seniors Sirjo Welch (Ohio State football recruit) had started on each of the prior final four squads, Raylon Almon (Alaska-Anchorage/ Bluefield State), Tyler Perry (Morgan State) and Ben Wilson (Shawnee State). The post was manned by the talented Darren Rascoe and back-up Ronnie Hampston. It also featured sophomore guard Elijah Cunningham (Tennessee Tech) who would later change his name to Elijah Muhammed in college. 

The team would dominate district play with two huge wins over Licking Valley and Bexley who both had fantastic teams. 

They confidently went to their third straight Athens regional, being the first and still the only Central District D2 team to win three consecutive district titles. 

Cunningham came off the bench to hit five treys in five possessions in a regional semifinal comeback win over Cambridge and their legendary coach Geno Ford. 

In the regional final game against Dover. The squad would lose the first regional game of their careers to the talented Tornadoes, who narrowly pulled the win out late in the fourth quarter. Still with three district titles and two final four appearances under their belt, the Cougar 2004 senior class held their heads high after the contest and have all carried their successes into successful careers after basketball. 

Burgert would capture one more district title before his coaching career ended in 2008. The 2007 squad finally gave Burgert a team with some size. While it featured a great backcourt led by four year letterman Troy Cherry and sophomore sensation Dominique Freeman. The front line was sensational and big led by talented forwards Kenneth Hughes and Darren Hughes (no relation) and a big two-headed center Julian Miller (West Virginia football) and John Harris. 

The team which was upset by Kettering Alter in a close game in the Dayton regional semifinal had perhaps the most memorable district final win in school history when Burgert used an unusual 1-4 zone against Canal Winchester and their 7-foot center Byron Mullens to win by a convincing 74-49 margin. The fast and skywalking Cougars finished the game with a dozen dunks while forcing more than 30 turnovers. 

Despite not having nearly the most talented teams in Beechcroft history and being undersized in eight of his nine seasons at the schoo, Bergert finished his career with four district titles and two regional titles. His lone season as a head coach at West High School was a 21-2 season that culminated in a City League title.

He also won three of four Christmas tourneys he participated in, winning at Upper Arlington, Westerville and East Liverpool against strong fields. Burgert is one of the greatest tournament coaches in Central District history winning 30 of 40 career state tournament games from 1999-2008. He had previously been a junior varsity or assistant varsity coach for 20 seasons at South, Brookhaven and West High Schools in Columbus. He passed away in 2016 from an unexpected heart attack. 

The first great team in Beechcroft history came under their first head coach Dick Ruh who had come to the school from Dominion Junior High. His early squads were badly outmanned by the great City League teams of the late 70s and the very early 80's. 

Ruh was a great coach and finally got a break when he got help from the dynamic duo of Steve Brown and Steve Iannarino in 1983. Brown who still resides in central Ohio and Iannarino who now lives in Charlotte, led their team to both the City championship and the school's only Division I district championship. 

Brown and Iannarino would go on to be collegiate rivals at the next level. Brown would go to Otterbein where he would play shooting guard on one of the greatest teams in the schools history and that went to the NCAA final four behind All-American center Dick Hempy. Iannarino would gain second team NCAA D3 All-American honors at Wittenberg University who would also get to a final four. Iannarino would score nearly 2000 points in his collegiate career and beat Brown's Otterbein team in the NCAA regional final in their senior season. 

The 1999 Cougar team led by 10 seniors and coach Joe Dudas was the deepest and one of the most talented teams in school history. They represented the Cougar team with the best chance to win the state title. Considered a bit of an underachieving regular season team, Dudas led the team to two district titles in 1998 and 1999 with the 1999 team storming through the district and regional championships and setting up a defacto state title game against Kettering Alter in the state semifinals. 

Led by 6-foot-9 center Delano Thomas, 6-foot-4 forward Eric Bell and the greatest slam dunker in school history in 6-foot-2 guard Marcello Cox the Cougars would fall in a 83-82 double overtime loss to eventual state champion Kettering Alter in a game considered one if the greatest in OHSAA history. 

Other great teams at Beechcroft that didn't win district titles included the Satch Sullinger led team of the mid 90's that featured multiple stars including two-time all-city selections guard Shaun Fountain (Wisconsin-Milwaukee), center Mitch Hankins (Ball State) who was a 6-foot-8, 240 lb. beast inside, along with wing Darrell Smith who would go on to be the nation's leading scorer in the NAIA at Oklahoma Weseyan, scoring more than 37 points a game. 

The late 80's team led by All-Ohio guard James Bradley were also top-notch. Bradley who played at Ohio State would be the most prolific scorer in Beechcroft history scoring at a 30 point per game clip his final two seasons. He also had a 50 point scoring effort his senior season. He would transfer to Otterbein in the ladder half of his career leading them to the final four and scoring 44 points in a D3 final four contest. 

Part of the long-term hoops success is no doubt due to the string of great coaches the school has hired led by Ruh, Sullinger, Dudas and Burgert, and most recently run and gun coaches Scott Davis (now at Reynoldsburg) and current coach Humphrey Simmons who was the 2018 Central District coach of the year in D2. 

The 2018 squad is looking like the best in school history. They became the second City Championship team and have already broken the school record for regular season wins and overall wins in a season.

They are led by first team all-district selections Jelani Simmons and Datrey Long who joined Bradley and Brown as career 1,000 point scorers. Along with brothers Therron (2nd team all-district) and Teon Jennings who both can bomb treys from deep. Two-headed posts Elijah Bishop and Naelle Simmons give the Cougars length and depth on the interior. 

The No. 2 state-ranked Cougars will face Columbus Bishop Hartley (19-5) on Saturday in the D2 District Championship at Africentric High School at 1 p.m. 

Below are my all-time Beechcroft team selections ... They are just my personal choices after watching the school compete for four decades. 

1st team - Coaches  - Kent Burgert and Humphrey Simmons

G. James Bradley, Steve Brown, DeQuan Owens, Datrey Long, Shaun Fountain and Dominique Freeman. 

F. Steve Iannarino, Devin Green, Darrell Smith, Jelani Simmons, Ken Brown (24 pts and 10 rebounds a game in 1984) and Josh Gouch. 

C. Mitch Hankins, Delano Thomas and Mike Brown 

2nd team - Dick Ruh and Joe Dudas

G. Elijah Cunningham Muhammed, Teon Jennings, Raylon Almon, Sirjo Welch,  Kevin Frasier and Ben Wilson. 

F. Therron Jennings, Eric Bell, Daron Hughes, Kenneth Hughes, Ron Page, and Marcello Cox. 

C. Elijah Bishop, Andrew Devlin and John Harris. 

3rd team - Coaches: Satch Sullinger and Scott Davis

G. Troy Cherry, Khaleed Franklin, Frankie Wilson, Josh Rohrbacher, Tony McClendon and Josh Moore
     
F. Chris Alexander, Josh Childers, Anthony Durr, Wiiliam Revels, Brad Smith and Tyler Perry. 
 
C. James Lloyd, Julian Miller, and Doug Warren 

Tweet me @johnstampe1 to let me know who I missed.