When Jon Buchanan took over FairlandƵs girls basketball team in 2009, playing a fellow Ohio Valley Conference team for a trip to the state championship game seemed far-fetched.
That had as much to do with the Dragons as anything else, he said.
ƵIƵll be perfectly honest with you, when we first started, we didnƵt really even know there was a (state) tournament,Ƶ Buchanan said Tuesday. ƵI donƵt think that that was even a thing. We were as big of rubes as you could probably be in knowing how the setup was.Ƶ
Fifteen seasons later, Fairland has become intimately familiar with it. The Dragons will play in the state semifinals for the fifth time in 12 years on Saturday against Portsmouth at Ohio UniversityƵs Convocation Center in Athens.
Regardless of whether Fairland or the Trojans win, the OVC will have a new distinction: first member school to play for an Ohio state basketball championship.
Portsmouth has qualified for eight state boys finals and Ironton has played in one, but those were all before the Trojans and Fighting Tigers joined the OVC in 2014. League charter members Oak Hill and Wheelersburg have played for titles Ƶ in the OaksƵ case both boys and girls Ƶ but long after they left the OVC.
One OVC team has been left standing on the final day of the season, but it was across the Ohio River. Buffalo played in the Mountain StateƵs Class AA girls title game in 1992, the BisonsƵ last season before vacating the OVC and six years before consolidation into Spring Valley.
Now Fairland, in its third straight trip to the Final Four, and Portsmouth, making a second-straight semifinal appearance, will meet. On the line: the opportunity to represent the OVC on the stateƵs biggest stage.
ƵI think itƵs a big accomplishment,Ƶ Trojans coach Amy Hughes said. ƵWe should both be proud of our teams, and I definitely am proud of mine. I wouldnƵt have anything to say but just positive things about both communities and both sets of kids.Ƶ
A league, in its 71st year, will get its day in the sun Saturday. So will two programs and two communities that stamped themselves as serious contenders even before the number of available state semifinal berths nearly doubled when the OHSAA went from four divisions to seven.
ƵWe knew that it was gonna be a great opportunity to shine a great positive light on not just the OVC, but girls basketball in Southern Ohio as a whole,Ƶ Buchanan said. ƵIƵm just so thankful for us and Portsmouth to get to play at the Ohio University Convocation Center. ItƵs just a celebration of good basketball in Southern Ohio for girls.Ƶ
ƵMeans more hereƵ
When Buchanan took the reins in Rome Township, the OVCƵs membership had dwindled to five schools. South Point was regarded as the conferenceƵs cream of the crop in girls basketball. Ironton, Portsmouth and Gallia Academy were years away from joining.
The conferenceƵs addition of the Fighting Tigers and the Trojans added an infusion of both historical strength as well as quality in the present.
Buchanan, meanwhile, set about building the same tradition with the Dragons. Fairland made the state semifinals in 2014 and Ƶ15.
This year, the Dragons bounced back from a pair of losses to Portsmouth, which cost them a long streak of conference titles, to extend a more important one, with a third straight Final Four.
Fairland relishes another shot to represent its small-town Appalachian corner of the Buckeye State in state-level competition.
ƵThereƵs definitely a high sense of pride for our kids and honestly for myself,Ƶ Buchanan said. ƵWe just are very proud of the fact that our kids really work hard at basketball. We want to definitely promote the fact that basketball, from a girls perspective, means more here in Proctorville than maybe it does other places.Ƶ
The same is true an hourƵs drive northwest at Portsmouth, where the Trojans made their first-ever state semifinal last season.
Portsmouth wasted no time in repeating, qualifying for the same round in 2025.
ƵIƵm super proud of my kids; IƵm super happy for my community,Ƶ Hughes said. ƵMy girls have just been a joy, to be honest with you. TheyƵve brought a lot of happiness to this community and a lot of excitement. IƵm just thrilled.Ƶ
Doug Graham coached Ironton in two state semifinals Ƶ one before the Fighting Tigers joined the OVC, in 2010, and one as a league member, in 2016.
Graham has moved on from his seat on IrontonƵs bench into South PointƵs principalƵs chair. He remembers well, though, the challenge of getting his teams ready to meet the Trojans and the Dragons.
Graham lauded the work of Buchanan and Hughes, their assistants and their teams in building quality programs in the Southeast District.
ƵThe population here in Southern Ohio is not the largest, but when you have leaders that can instruct and can motivate and will put the time in, we have student-athletes that can develop their skills and their abilities to reach this level,Ƶ Graham said. ƵItƵs great to see it. You can almost count on it, end of every February, March, Fairland and Portsmouth will be there in girls basketball competing for championships.Ƶ
ƵThrilled for Southern OhioƵ
Fairland and Portsmouth are returning to the state semifinals, but they didnƵt play in the same tournament last year.
The OHSAAƵs expansion from four classifications to seven in basketball before this season bumped both into Division V.
Buchanan remains proud that the Dragons made four trips to this round before the expansion.
ƵThereƵs additional opportunities, and thatƵs great,Ƶ Buchanan said. ƵOn the other hand, as a competitor, as somebody that believes in competition, I think that you embrace what was hard before, too.
ƵIƵm not upset about how itƵs working, but IƵm very thankful to have played in the old system as well, IƵll say that.Ƶ
On the other side, Graham sees value in the experience expanding to more schools.
ƵTo look at those communities, with their shirts on, with their pom-poms, with their little kids that look up to those basketball players as their heroes, I think (deep postseason runs are) a great thing for school communities,Ƶ Graham said. ƵFor those extra schools to get those opportunities, those extra games, to kinda spread out the wealth a little bit, I think itƵs phenomenal.Ƶ
And maybe, itƵs an opportunity even more OVC schools will have.
In the meantime, Portsmouth and Fairland are continuing to represent the area well on the state level.
ƵTo see two teams from Southern Ohio, Portsmouth and Fairland, battling it out in the Final Four, guaranteeing somebody will be there (in the final), is exciting,Ƶ Graham said. ƵIƵm thrilled for both of them. IƵm thrilled for the OVC, and IƵm thrilled for Southern Ohio.Ƶ
