25 years out of coaching, Bob Haas reflects on his Willard tenure

WILLARD – Anniversaries come far to fast in senior citizen households — and that probably includes the wedding anniversary of Bob and Sandy Haas.They have been married 58 years. But it's also the 25th anniversary since Bob has been in the boys basketball coaching box at Willard High School."Does not seem possible," said Haas, the 77-year-old Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame member. "I have been most fortunate after retirement in being able to stay close to Willard basketball by doing color commentating for WLKR radio."Haas coached Willard to 441 victories, has a 522-114 (.820 percentage) win-loss record. He still keeps tabs on the Crimson Flashes teams in the lower grades. He has the freshmen class earmarked."It might not look like it now, because those 9th graders are split up, some on the freshmen team, some on the junior varsity and three others on the varsity," Haas said. "They all have their roles presently. The key, however, is keeping them in the program."Haas feels the competition Willard (3-14) now faces in a new league at the varsity level is very close to what it was in the recently disbanded Northern Ohio League."Almost every team in our division is competitive," he said. "Maybe not at the highest level of NOL years, but presently, there is very little dilution from top-to-bottom."This is the time of the year when Haas believed all of the pieces had to be in place. And over his 22 years at Willard, he certainly had teams playing their best basketball come the first day of February.That was proven out by his teams winning 16 NOL titles, many of those wins during the Crimson Flashes state-record setting 69 straight regular season wins. It was a historic streak that started on Feb. 23, 1979 with a lopsided 81-35 victory over Shelby — to the Dec. 28, 1982, 49-43 win at St. Mary Central Catholic.Three of his 22 seasons ended in Columbus in the state semifinals.Haas talked about the losses to Portsmouth (65-53) in 1980, Dayton Roth (74-61) in 1982 and to Wheelersburg (70-64) in 1984."The Portsmouth game was the key one of the three down there," Haas said. "We were capable of winning that game, but in all fairness to the program, we had a tragedy in our community that week that took the edge off the game."We were so wound together, players, school and community, as it was our first trip to the state," he added. "That incident could well have slowed our momentum."He called Portsmouth a good team, but not the caliber of Dayton Roth or Wheelersburg. He saw Roth more talented, but believed Wheelersburg, when playing on the lead, was a team that was good enough to take his team out of their game.Haas feels state tournament tradition has a lot to do with success in future trips."I think our success or lack of could have even helped Greg Nossaman's team when he also lost in the state semifinals (70-66 to Warrensville Heights) in 2001," Haas said.Haas marveled at the Dayton Roth team, one that had a 6-foot-8 athlete inside and three players went on to accept college scholarships. And that quartet did not include the hulking Keith Byars, who would go on to play football at Ohio State and the NFL."Even with those great athletes, we were still in the game in the fourth quarter," Haas said. "We had to foul and they did not miss from the free-throw line. That was our best performance in Columbus in my tenure."The Wheelersburg game was also settled in the final quarter."They had a short lead and protected it with a slow-down game, keeping the ball as much as possible in the hands of their All-Ohio player, Todd Staker," Haas said. "They did a great job of holding the basketball. It was the only game in my tenure that I was wishing for a shot clock."Haas has certainly had his share of All-Ohio players over the years, but he has had twice that many players who have stepped up in key situations."Johnny Gordon, all 5-foot-5 of him, was a dynamite player in what I call the year of the blizzard," Haas said. "The NOL saw fit to reschedule us three road games in five days. We lost the first game at Bellevue."On the way back as we passed the swimming pool in Willard, Johnny piped up, 'It doesn't change a thing coach. Win the next two at Galion and Tiffin, and we win it all. 'And we did win those two and won the NOL despite the cards being stacked against us," he added.Another of his unsung heroes played on the first undefeated team (1972-73)."We were in trouble against Ashland that night when Rick Willoughby stepped up for us," Haas said. "Here was a young man who came into that game late and probably scored more points in the fourth quarter and in the overtime than he did the rest of the year."It showed he was ready to play when his number was called," he added. "We got a tremendous contribution from Mike Buurma that night, but had it not been for probably the least talented of the three Willoughby brothers, we would not have kept our winning streak intact."Out of coaching since 1993, Haas genuinely appreciates the coaches and players who make him feel he remains a part of the program."Yes, its disappointing to see them lose at times, but I feel privileged to be close to both the boys and girls programs through the radio commentary," he said.Haas talks fondly about an incident that occurred last month at Plain City (Johnathan Alder High School). He attended a game there with wife and another couple — the latter two there to watch their eighth-grade grandson play."As soon as the game started, I realized this was a very talented group of kids who played well together and had great potential," Haas said. "For whatever reason, I was asked to address the team after the game. I could not believe how attentive those young men were. As I look back, I have to believe I benefited more from those 10 minutes than those athletes did."As a postscript to the story, Haas did not have to be guided to the locker room after that game. When he was at Southeastern High School earlier in his career, he coached there against Johnathan Alder six times.Retired Willard boys basketball coach Bob Haas stands in the gym that has since been named in his honor. Haas has been out of coaching for 25 years this season.