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Community rallies to welcome home Madison girls

Brittany Shields autographs a girl’s T-shirt after the Madison High School girls basketball player got off the team bus from Columbus on Saturday afternoon, March 20. Community members gathered to welcome the girls home after the Division III state championship game.

ontributed photo by Jessica Uttinger Brittany Shields autographs a girl’s T-shirt after the Madison High School girls basketball player got off the team bus from Columbus on Saturday afternoon, March 20. Community members gathered to welcome the girls home after the Division III state championship game.

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Updated 8:33 AM Monday, March 22, 2010

MADISON TWP. — The Madison High girls basketball team finished runner-up in the state tournament — or as one woman yelled, “We won the silver medal” — but the community gave it a championship welcome home celebration.

By the time the Butler County sheriff’s cruiser, Madison Twp. fire truck and the charter bus carrying the players and coaching staff turned into the parking lot Saturday, March 20, a sea of red awaited the team after it lost 66-44 to Findlay Liberty-Benton in the Division III state final at Schottenstein Center on the Ohio State University campus.

Many in the crowd wore “Got State? We Do” T-shirts, and they drove cars decorated with Mohawk signs, including: “Two Teams. One Dream.”

While the girls lost in the state final, the boys team fell last week in the regional semifinal.

As the girls stepped out of the bus, the pep band played the school fight song, and the fans chanted “Mohawks! Mohawks!”

The players, tears filling their eyes for at least the second time, quickly were engulfed by young fans wanting their T-shirts autographed.

Saturday was proclaimed “Lady Mohawk Day” in the township.

John Rossi Jr., the girls coach, said while the team finished “second in the books, the girls are No. 1 in our hearts.”

The team’s two seniors — Lindsay Hoskins and Adrianne Lehman — said they enjoyed the tremendous fan support throughout the season.

“I love every one of you,” Hoskins said.

The award for longest drive goes to Robin Owens, who, because of the job market, moved her family from Madison Twp., to Watkinsville, Ga., last summer. She followed the Mohawks on the Internet all season, and when they won the state semifinal Thursday afternoon, she loaded up her boys — Jonah, 8, and Hunter, 6, — and drove to Columbus, a mere 600 miles.

Was it a “wasted” trip?

“Absolutely not,” she said. “We are Madison. This is where we belong.”

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