PERRYSBURG – The lights were turned
on in Perrysburg’s Junior High School gym for varsity boys basketball Saturday night. It was the first
varsity game in the gym since 2000.The game was a throwback contest for rivals Perrysburg and Rossford, who
have been playing each other for over 50 years. Ray Pohlman, Perrysburg’s athletics director, said the theme
for the game was dating back to 1963 when Rossford joined the Northern Lakes League.Former coaches and
players from both teams were recognized before the game. The former coaches were also able to talk with each
other to relive memories of past games.Among the memories were the stuffed Bulldog mascot always placed at
center court for warm-ups, and the golden ball used by the Yellow Jackets for warm-ups.Larry Clark, a former
Perrysburg coach, also recalled when a Rossford student went over to sit in the Perrysburg student section,
and Clark had to go rescue him from the Yellow Jacket fans.”Joe (Stalma, a former Rossford coach) and I
were just talking, and he said it brings back old memories, and it surely does,” said Clark, who is
73-years-old and is currently a teacher and coach at Lincolnview High School. ”It looks a lot different
with the new-type bleachers and all that in here.”It was very intense (rivalry); it was crazy. It was great
student bodies from both of those schools,” Clark continued. ”Before fire marshals came into existence,
people were standing under the baskets and things like that; there was just no room anywhere.”Doc Thomas, a
former Perrysburg coach, said the friendships between the two coaching staffs was special.”That was
probably the best thing about it,” Thomas said. ”You may not like to go over there and play or they come
over here, but once the smoke cleared away and the heat of the battle, everything was fine.”Thomas
remembers a game at Perrysburg, when a Rossford inbounds pass late in the game went awry.”One of the kids
on the Rossford bench stood up, and he was looking down the floor,” Thomas said. ”The poor kid taking the
ball out-of-bounds fired it down there to him, because he thought he had a kid in-bounds.”I thought Stalma
was going to go right through the roof.”Rossford’s Mike Heck was part of the rivalry as a coach, and a
father.”The excitement of walking into Perrysburg’s gym – they used to get crazy. It was such a rivalry
between the two schools; they would fill both gyms,” Heck said.One of Heck’s special memories was when his
son, James, hit the winning shot to beat the Yellow Jackets at Perrysburg.Stalma said there were some
”doozies” in the rivalry.”My second year at Rossford, I started three sophomores, they (Perrysburg), had
all seniors, I think,” Stalma said. ”We beat them at our place, and that was when only one of two games
were league games. The second time was a nonleague (at Perrysburg) and they beat us.”And then, it was
tournament time, and we played them at Anthony Wayne,” he continued. ”We were up by three with seven
seconds to go, and they had the ball. There were no 3-point shots then. I said ‘as soon as they cross that
10-second line, I want our guys to go stand out-of-bounds.’ They did. Their kid put a layup in and we won by
one point.”This night brings back so many memories; it’s just great to see all these guys,” Stalma
added.Current Perrysburg head coach Dave Boyce enjoyed the atmosphere.”It’s sort of two-tiered. For the
community, to have everybody back and all of the coaches, is just a really cool thing. It was a great
atmosphere,” Boyce said. ”For our kids, more than anything, they came back to where they played in junior
high, where they played just a couple of years ago. And they had a lot of fun talking about the locker
rooms, the back hallway and the whole bit.”Brian Vorst, Rossford’s head coach, was happy to see several of
the former Bulldog head coaches.”It was really neat for me as a coach because those are the coaches that we
measure ourselves against,” Vorst said. ”Coach Stalma. coach (Cot) Marquette, and coach Heck, those are
the kings of our school,” Vorst said. ”To be with those guys and to be able to take a picture with them is
something that I’ll cherish.”There’s a lot of history there on both sides of the fence, from Perrysburg and
Rossford, and it’s just neat to be a part of that,” he continued. ”And it’s just a lot of admiration that
our people have for all of the coaches that were represented tonight. It was really neat to be around
them.”Perrysburg won Saturday’s game, 88-49.(Sentinel Sports Writer Thomas Schmeltz contributed to this
story.)