Having the time of their lives

On this cold Tuesday night in February, Frank Spotleson is sitting in the stands of Lake High School’s gymnasium, a proud father watching his son play high school basketball.

Mitchell Spotleson is the leading scorer and rebounder for the Lake Blue Streaks, who are having their way with a young Louisville team.

A box of popcorn in his hand, Frank doesn’t do much yelling or cheering in between getting congratulated by passers-by for his success as Canton South’s first-year head coach. Frank watches Mitchell play his all-around game, hitting a 17-footer, finishing in traffic, creating havoc defensively with his length. There is little drama in what turns out to be a 70-24 Lake win.

Frank thinks back to those difficult decisions during the summer, about whether or not he should leave his son’s side to chase a dream, and whether or not Mitchell should follow.

“All the scenarios you talk about, and we couldn’t have written it any better than the way it played out,” Frank says. “... It’s been absolutely amazing. I’ve had the time of my life. And really, I think Mitch feels the same way.”

This high school basketball season has become the Season of Spotleson.

Dad’s team — Canton South — is 20-2 and the No. 1 seed at the Canton Division II district tournament. This after the Wildcats totaled 14 combined wins the previous three seasons.

Son’s team — Lake — is 19-3 and the No. 1 seed at the Alliance Division I district tournament. The Blue Streaks set a school record for single-season wins. They won their first league championship in 26 years in the Federal League, and they did it in the most dramatic of fashion with a 93-92 double-overtime win against Jackson on Feb. 8.

Lake retrieved a ladder and cut down one of the nets. A week later, South did the same after clinching the outright NBC championship with a two-point win against Alliance.

Surrounded by his old friends and colleagues from Lake and his new friends and colleagues at South after the Alliance game, Frank soaked in the moment.

The 54-year-old native of Canton waited more than 30 years for this opportunity. The wait was worth it.

***

On this cold Tuesday night in February, all the games are starting to run together for Mrs. Spotleson.

“What league is Louisville in?” asks Lori Spotleson, Frank’s wife and the mother of Mitchell and the couple’s 13-year-old twin sons, Matthew and Michael.

“Ours,” Frank responds, meaning the NBC, before adding with mock indignation, “If you didn’t go to every Lake game and came to a couple of (South’s) games you would have known that.”

Lori can be forgiven. She seems to be running to gyms every night between Mitchell, Frank and the twins. Recently, there were eight games in a week. She got to seven.

“It’s been busy,” she describes, “and fun.”

One of her main duties has been texting Frank updates of Mitchell’s games when Frank can’t attend. Never was this more difficult than during the wild win against Jackson.

Lori’s cell phone died before the second overtime. Her final text: “Double OT. I’m having a heart attack.”

Frank was on a bus driving back from Carrollton, where the Wildcats had clinched a share of the NBC title. While the team celebrated, Frank scrambled to find a Lake update.

Frank becoming a head coach has turned into a family affair. Frank has the twins stat South’s games from the game film. Mitchell, who has gotten to know the South players well, watches, too.

All the Spotleson boys together, watching basketball game tapes. It’s like Frank is sub-consciously training them to be coaches.

“They love running that film back,” Franks says of the twins. “They’ve been killing guys when they mess up.”

***

On this cold Tuesday night in February, it seems Frank Spotleson knows what Lake is going to do before it happens.

“It won’t take Tommy long to get out of man (defense) and go to the 1-3-1,” Frank says, referring to Lake head coach Tom McBride. Louisville spreads the floor with a four-corner look. On Louisville’s next offensive trip, the Blue Streaks are in a 1-3-1 trap.

“This is either going straight into (Caleb) Peach in the post, or it’s two backdoors,” Frank says as Lake brings the ball up the floor. Sure enough, after looking for Peach posting up, the ball is dribbled toward the top of the key while two Blue Streaks cut backdoor in succession.

Frank spent the six previous seasons as an assistant for McBride at Lake. While the programs mirror each other in many ways since Frank took a lot from Lake to South, they aren’t the same. Frank doesn’t run a ton of sets, while Frank says Mitchell once counted 80 sets in McBride’s playbook, a number McBride disputes.

It’s clear Spotleson and McBride formed a bond together, and that bond didn’t break when Frank headed south to Canton Township over the summer.

They talk multiple times a week. When South clinched the outright NBC title against Alliance, McBride was there to congratulate his friend. He knows what a league title means. It took him 14 years to get one at Lake, the smallest school in the Federal League.

“I learned a lot from Frank and he learned a lot from me,” McBride says. “In a sense, it validates that what you’ve been doing in your program are a lot of the right things. ... From talking to him, we both have great locker-room guys. That character is showing on the floor.”

***

On this cold Tuesday night in February, Frank is getting texts from Armand Fontes, South’s senior point guard, who is watching the Wildcats’ first-round tournament opponent, Tuslaw, play at East Canton.

“We sent Armand to scout,” Frank says, only half-joking. “The kid does it all.”

South seniors such as Fontes, Kyle Deckerd and Trey Taylor have been through high school basketball hell. A third head coach in three years. Almost 50 losses in the three seasons prior to this one.

Spotleson is the kind of guy whose blood pressure doesn’t seem to ever exceed 120/80. However it works in the psychology of basketball, his demeanor fits the Wildcats, a group of kids who had paid their dues and were ready to finally enjoy some success.

“They knew I was going to give them the room that they might not have had the last couple of years,” Frank says. “We actually gave them the opportunity to play through some mistakes that might have cost them some playing time.”

Frank, who went to St. Thomas Aquinas High School and played two years at Baldwin-Wallace College, got this first coaching job as a JV assistant at Midpark High School in 1979. As the years passed, it looked as if he’d be a career assistant. Frank was turned down numerous times for head coaching jobs. He guesses his personality — easy-going, deferential — didn’t fit the profile of what administrators were looking for in a head coach.

He was South’s second choice to replace Drew Meister. The first choice, Maple Heights’ Phil Schmook, backed out hours before his hire was to be approved in June.

South then revisited Spotleson, and soon he was offered the job.

***

On this cold Tuesday night in February, as the snow blows outside Lake’s gym, the Spotlesons reminisce about a decision made in the heat of summer.

“When Frank was looking at the (South) job, we sat down and said he needed to make his decision first and live with the fact that if he was going to be a head coach, there were going to be nights when he couldn’t see Mitchell play,” Lori said. “He couldn’t let Mitchell make the decision for him. ... (Frank) had to make it separately and not put that pressure on Mitchell.”

Frank wondered if he’d ever get another opportunity. All along, Mitchell encouraged his dad.

“I didn’t want him to hold back because I’m only going to be here for two more years,” said Mitchell, a 6-foot-4 junior forward. “I was like, ‘Dad, go there. Be the coach you’ve always wanted to be. Go do it.’ ”

Frank made his decision. Now Mitchell had a decision of his own. He thought hard about making the commute each day with his dad to South. But he kept coming back to the fact that he wanted to stay with his friends at Lake, the kids he’s played basketball with since third grade. Mitchell and fellow junior Alex Belinsky joined senior Chaese Vaudrin to form a promising nucleus for this season.

“I think Mitch has become a man overnight by having to make that type of decision, by putting it in his hands a little bit,” McBride said. “He’s such a leader for these kids. He’s a well-liked kid here on and off the court.”

Mitchell is averaging 17.5 points and 7.4 rebounds while shooting 61.6 percent from the field — each stat among the area leaders.

Frank has seen him play live five times and probably watched five or six other games on tape this season.

But being separated has brought them closer in a way. Frank enjoys being able to focus on Mitchell and not maintain a wider coach’s perspective when watching Lake. The two find it easier to talk hoops when “dad” isn’t “coach,” too.

“After practices, if something bad happened, you’d just want to forget it,” Mitchell said of past years. “My mom didn’t want to hear the battles. But now I tell him pretty much everything that goes on. We like to talk basketball together.”

Frank has fun with Mitchell, trying to sell him on the idea of being the rare athlete to win a Federal League title and an NBC title. All Mitchell has to do is go to South next year.

Said McBride with a smile, “I sent (Frank) a text telling him to lay off my player or I’ll have to file a complaint with the OHSAA.”

Mitchell is at Lake to stay. Now McBride’s challenge is to get to the twins to stick around. That’s a discussion for another day.

On this cold Tuesday night in December, Frank Spotleson is enjoying cheering for his son. And he can’t ask for more.