by Gregg Meadows
They started it all! Pictured on the left is the very first Tri-Valley girls’ basketball team, the 1971-72 Lady Scotties! Below this picture in the 1972 TVHS yearbook, the last sentence in the caption read, “Maybe this is the first step toward women’s liberation in school!!” Front row: (l-r) Mary Anne Cordray, Vickie Wilson, Karen Ross, Diane Lane, Joyce Graham, Martha Ross, Debbie Ridgway, Debbie Lacy, Diane Ludinich, Candie Prince, Kathy Hahn. Row 2: Mrs. Hartong, Jill Randall, Arlene White, Debbie Wolford, Johnna Headley, Betty Conkle, Becky Wolford. Row 3: Betsy Gray, Darla Foraker, Christy Lacy, Ellen Howard. Row 4: Christie Daniel, Jerri Border, Cindy Tyo. Not pictured: Holly Woods.
The early years of Lady Scottie hoops formed a firm foundation for over half a century of Tri-Valley girls’ basketball excellence – and also – girls’ athletics at TVHS
“I’ll never forget that day in the first week of school my junior year,” says 1973 TVHS graduate Kathy (Hahn) Sidwell.
TVHS legendary principal Jack Anderson had just ushered a large throng of the first period girls’ physical education class into the gymnasium in the first week of school at the new high school building in the fall of 1971, to meet their new teacher.
“Girls,” exclaimed the Jefferson and Tri-Valley High school principal, “this is your new physical education teacher, Barbara Hartong.”
“And,” Anderson said with a wry smile that only he could manufacture, “Mrs. Hartong will also be coaching our very first girls’ basketball team this winter here at TVHS.”
“I couldn’t believe my ears,” said a thrilled Sidwell. “Finally, the girls I grew up with and played intramural and junior high sports with were going to have our own basketball team!” Sidwell wasted little time in spreading the word in the halls and classrooms at TVHS after meeting Coach Hartong. “I busted out of those gym doors searching for friends (and later teammates) Vicki Wilson, Jill Randall, Candi Prince, Johnna Headley, Diane Ludinich – and anyone I could find – to tell them, WE CAN PLAY!”
And with that, not only basketball, but girls’ athletics as we know it today in Scottieland, had finally arrived. (Thank you, Jack Anderson).
Sidwell was a true home-grown, Dresden, Ohio girl.
Growing up in a household as the youngest child – and only girl – of John and Mary Ellen Hahn with two older brothers who played sports, she could have been mistaken for a typical tomboy in the athletic sense. Sidwell and her childhood friends romped and biked over the playgrounds, streets – and ballfields – of Dresden in the mid-to-late 1960’s.
“I would go to my brothers’ athletic events, and I would watch them play and say, ‘I can do that… I can hit the baseball that far… I can make that basket too’, and so could some of my girlfriends,” Sidwell stated as she watched from the sidelines.
“It was frustrating for girls with athletic interests growing up in the 1960’s,” states Sidwell. “We had nothing to do – the boys got to be on all the sports teams. I was always asking why I couldn’t play sports and always got the same answer.. BECAUSE YOU’RE A GIRL!” That’s what eventually pushed me into cheerleading later on; it was something athletic to do, and I could earn a varsity letter and get a varsity jacket!”
It wasn’t until Sidwell got to Frazeysburg Junior High and met a huge influence in her life – and many others in the 1960’s,70’s and 80’s, Physical Education teacher Bob James, that things changed.
James taught physical education to middle school students in the Tri-Valley School District for over 30 years. But he taught (all of us) so much more. Just ask anyone (of us) who changed into gym clothes for his classes (cotton white shorts and white t-shirt for the boys) with our names marked on them in ball point pen, then stood in a line for inspection and further instruction!
Push-ups, sit-ups, squat thrusts, isometrics, trampoline jumps, swimming in the Frazeysburg Pool in the fall during phys ed class (1st and 2nd period were real ‘waker uppers’), flag football, the much beloved indoor pin kick-ball, and yes, the best – square dancing – made James a junior high phys. ed. legend.
And his quest for physical fitness for his students is what really lit the light bulb in a young Kathy Hahn’s life, in particular on the hardwood, as James started and organized a junior high hoops program for girls in the late 1960’s, even driving the bus (they were never late) to scheduled contests with other schools.
“Mr. James planted the seed for girls organized sports when we were in junior high,” explains Sidwell. And it was Mr. Jack Anderson that opened the door for girls athletics at TVHS,” beams Sidwell.
But the birth of girls’ basketball – and athletics – at TVHS didn’t come without growing pains.
“The first year, we had to buy our own shorts, and for our ‘jerseys’ we wore the Scottie boys basketball team’s practice jerseys with numbers,” explains Sidwell. “We never got to practice – or play – in the new gymnasium. We practiced in the evenings, and played our games at the old freshman annex (Jefferson High School) on Saturday mornings.”
But perhaps the most ironic twist in the first years of girls’ basketball (at TVHS and across the country) was the size of the basketball. “We used the boys’ basketballs and never thought anything of it,” stated Sidwell. It would be another 10 years before a smaller ball was officially put into play for high schools and colleges in women’s basketball.
“Our first year was a learning process for sure,” said Sidwell. “We didn’t play in a league, had about only 10 games with area schools that fielded teams and of course, there weren’t any post-season tournaments. We didn’t have any crowds at our games so to speak; it was mostly just parents that came to the annex to watch us play,” laughed Sidwell.
“I’ll never forget that first year though,” stated Sidwell. “We started it all.”
With the second year of basketball for the TVHS gals, things changed, starting at the top.
Enter Miss Debera Hughes, a first year physical education teacher at TVHS for the 1972-73 school year, who was appointed as the new girls basketball coach for the Lady Scotties as well.
And just as Jack Anderson was the right hire at the right time back in 1962 for the Jefferson High School’s principal job, Debera (Hughes) McCloy proved the perfect fit for Tri-Valley HS as its new physical education teacher, and girls’ basketball coach.
Though Miss Hughes was short in stature – she was affectionately called “Shorty Coach” – she played a large role in the early days of TVHS girls’ athletics, not only coaching basketball, but was tabbed as the school’s first volleyball coach as well, in the fall of 1974. She took a pair of Lady Scottie basketball teams all the way to Regional play in the 1970’s, enjoyed a 30-year career as an educator with Tri-Valley Schools, and in 2014 was justly inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame.
Sidwell went on to have a successful senior season (1972-73) under first-year Coach Hughes (Sidwell scored 18 points in a game vs. River View) and at the end of the season, the Lady Scotties were invited to be a part of the TVHS Winter Sports banquet, where senior Arlene White became TVHS girls’ basketball’s first Most Valuable Player!
Sidwell was also a cheerleader, and went on to cheer for TVHS all four years in high school. She married TVHS Athletic Hall of Fame charter member – and Scottie hoops legend – Charlie Sidwell in 1977. They have two daughters, Shayna and Kelsey, and two granddaughters and a grandson. Shayna – a 2009 TVHS grad – played for the Lady Dawgs under Coach Marty Bice and was an integral part of the ’09 squad that ran the table during an undefeated regular season and finished with a 22-1 record.
As far as girls’ athletics go, Sidwell is proud of what she and her ‘pioneer’ teammates and good friends accomplished in their high school years, but is still a bit miffed that over 50 years later (1972’s Title IX withstanding) it took somebody like the recent hardwood heroics of Iowa’s Caitlin Clark to really put the spotlight on girls basketball.
“Better late than never, but my goodness, girls’ athletics have come a long way; I’m so glad my granddaughters are able to play any sport they want in school – starting in kindergarten!,” a grateful Sidwell sums up.
