Meet Super Fan: Stephen

Photo Owned By: JustStickers

***For the sake of Stephen's privacy his last name will not be released in this article.***

In late February, just prior to the start of the 2023 OHSAA Boys Basketball Tournament run, I had the opportunity to speak with Stephen. In northwest Ohio, Stephen is known as the "Community Man".

While attending the OG Winter Classic event at Ottawa-Glandorf High School on Saturday, February 4th, I saw Stephen sitting on the bottom row at mid-court. With the OG Winter Classic consisting of four basketball contests featuring some of the best basketball programs in the state of Ohio, it was a "must see" event. Between each of the four games, their was a 20-minute break before the ensuing teams would reach the court for warmups. I decided to take this time in between the first and second game to approach the "Community Man".

My intentions were to just introduce myself to Stephen. I had never spoken to the man before and I wanted to get an understanding of his thoughts on the opening game. As I walked over towards Stephen, he immediately stood up and recognized my Ottawa-Glandorf sweatshirt. He expressed, "You guys have an excellent team this year, I have a lot of respect for the Titans." I was quite shocked to hear this response, coming from a man who was wearing a Lima Senior Spartans polo. For a little bit of context here, Lima Senior and Ottawa-Glandorf are huge non-conference rivals, with most of the games between us coming down to single-digits.

I wished his team luck in their contest against Hillard Bradley and started to walk away. I only got a few steps in before Stephen yelled, "Get back over here young man, how old are you." I expressed my age and conversation about basketball started to develop. As I introduced myself, I spoke to him about the marketing course offered at Defiance College and the whole structure of the course. Stephen found this information to be quite intriguing, and later on in the conversation he asked me if he could share his story with our group's audience. I gladly accepted his offer and we decided that we would conduct the interview in between the second and third game.

In between the second and third game, I met Stephen in the cafeteria. I had no idea what this story was going to consist of, but I was expecting it to be quite fascinating based on the stories I had heard from others beforehand. We both sat down at a table near a large window (Stephen's choice) and I was excited to hear Stephen's story. Just prior to the meeting, I remembered that I had a notebook inside my vehicle in the parking lot, so I decided to retrieve it so I could write down his story. During the interview of course, I wrote down what Stephen was saying, but afterwards, I decided to organize the interview content into a script. The script allows the story to be expressed in a way that I find easier to understand.

Script:

Brandon- "Thanks for meeting with me Stephen!"

Stephen- "Thank you for allowing me to share my story."

Brandon- "Not a problem. So, I see you are wearing a Lima Senior Spartans sweatshirt, did you graduate from Lima Senior?"

Stephen- "Funny story is no, I actually grew up in the Toledo area and graduated from Toledo Central Catholic."

Brandon- "Hmmm. How does a Toledo Central Catholic graduate end up switching teams to root for their conference rival in Lima Senior?"

Stephen- "Well, that's a great question and it has a lot to do with my story. Is it okay if I just jabber on with my story?"

Brandon- "Yes that is perfectly fine."

Stephen- "Okay. So, after graduation I moved to Florida and worked at a metal factory for about five years, before I decided to move back to Ohio. This was largely due to the high cost of living, but also other factors. When I moved back to the Toledo area, their was a lot of new people in the neighborhood and it was quite a different experience. Anyways, I've always loved watching basketball, so I decided to attend a game at my alma mater (Toledo Central Catholic) some Friday night and we happened to be playing the Lima Senior Spartans. As a student at TCC, there was a lot of hate towards Lima Senior within the student body, but I never disliked Lima Senior even though they had beat us most years. I respected them a lot especially their coaching staff. They played a brand of basketball that was both quick and physical, which was always something I had admired."

Brandon- "Similar to the style Ottawa-Glandorf runs today?"

Stephen- "Exactly like that. Well in short, their was a few unfortunate things that occurred in my neighborhood, and at the same I had a job opening come up in Lima. So, I decided with the circumstances to move to Lima."

Brandon- "So it was more of a location thing, as to why you switched fan bases?"

Stephen- "That was definitely a huge part of it. Anyways, I started attending Lima Senior games and I really enjoyed everything the school did for the fans in particular. In my opinion, Lima Senior basketball games provide everyone with a source of entertainment, regardless if you like to watch basketball or not. They always have food vendors outside with sandwiches, nachos, deserts, etc., that you simply don't get at other high school basketball games. They often have halftime performances from current students and they even bring in special guests to perform at some games."

Brandon- "Well, I'm sure it also helps that the basketball team is successful!"

Stephen- "Yes that is true, it definitely adds to the family environment at Lima Senior. Another thing that surprised me when I started attending the games, was how nice the fans were to one another. At my first attended game while living in Lima, I can still remember this woman greeting everyone as they walked into the gym. She didn't recognize me and asked for my name. So I said, my name is Stephen. She responded with a smile and said "Thanks for coming Stephen your now apart of the Spartan Community." Her words are something that have always stuck with me and from that day on, I decided that Lima Senior was my new home and I wanted to do everything in my power to continue this tradition."

Brandon- "Fantastic! That is quite a story."

Stephen- "Thank you Brandon, the Lima community has certainly changed my life in many ways, I'm so glad that I can officially say I'm apart of this community."

Brandon- "Thank you for sharing your story."

Stephen- "Thank you for allowing me to share it. Now let's go back in the gym so we don't miss any basketball."

It is clear that Stephen has a huge passion for the Lima Senior Spartan community. In northwest Ohio, their are many people like Stephen, and it is amazing to be able to speak and hear from these individuals and their perspectives. Once again, I would like to thank Stephen for taking the time to share his story and I look forward to speaking with him at basketball games in the near future!