'Cinderella Team' Wins Stow Recreation Basketball League

The seventh and eighth grade championship was won by a team, Georgetown Hoya, that never played together before.

The team was coached by Stow High School alumnus Sean Schafer and Taylor Erdman, both are students at the University of Akron and had played Stow recreational basketball.

Of the 10 talented players on Georgetown Hoya, six had never played together as a team, said Vicky Erdman.

"Sean stepped in as the head coach just hours before the team's first practice because Taylor had agreed to be the coach but did not realize many of the practices and games were on the days he had to work," she explained. "Luckily, Sean's father volunteered him to help coach the team and he and Taylor took their Hoya team to the finals."

The Hoyas beat the Pittburgh team in the quarter final 32-31 in double overtime.

"They beat Coach Porosky's blue Duke team 38-37 in the semifinal game and then went on to the championship game where they defeated the undefeated orange-shirted Syracuse team, in a heart stopping game that finished with a score of 32-27," said Erdman. "Unbelievable, a team that almost didn't have a coach and then was coached by two college kids, went on to win it all - truly a Cinderella Championship team and a priceless moment for the boys, the coaches and their very proud parents."