MANSFIELD — The Division IV district championship game may not have gone the way they had wanted, but it is hard to call anything the 2025-26 Shelby Whippets did this season a failure.
They saw their season end with a 61-40 loss to Perkins on Saturday, March 7 at Mansfield Senior to finish as the district runners-up with a 16-8 record. Considering what they had to go through to get there, some would say the Whippets overachieved.
“I am very proud of our season,” Shelby coach Greg Gallaway said. “We had a late start with football and just persevered all year. We didn’t have a preseason and only had less than two weeks before our first game and had to go out and compete. Our guys were resilient through it all.”
After a run to a state championship football game in the fall, the Whippets got an incredibly late start to their basketball season with their first game coming on Dec. 19, about two weeks after they walked off the football field. They played 21 games in 64 days in the regular season taking runner-up honors in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference. To add a district runner-up trophy in the case could be considered a miracle.
And yet, they expected to do more. The Whippets have very high standards in the program and anything less than a trip to the regional tournament felt like a letdown in their eyes.
That’s what happens when a team has the recent success the Whippets have enjoyed.
“We made it to three district championship games in a row,” Gallaway said. “That has never happened in our program’s history. We didn’t get the job done today and we have guys in there who are disappointed because our expectations were to play in BG. They are not satisfied with today’s result. That just shows you what our basketball culture is and what our expectations are.”
The Whippets fell behind early to Perkins trailing 12-9 at the end of the first quarter and 23-14 at the half. Perkins’ lead ballooned to 27-14 early in the third and remained at or near double digits the rest of the way.
Shelby senior Brayden DeVito led the Whippets with 25 points while Landon Foltz had 11, Michael Shepherd chipped in with two and Kayden Paz and Gavin Miller rounded out the scoring with one apiece. The Whippets had just one field goal from someone not named DeVito or Foltz and it came with 2:05 left in the game.
“Those two have been our two main guys this year and we just didn’t have that third scoring threat today like we had hoped,” Gallaway said. “Overall, what they do defensively can really put pressure on an offense because they have length and size at every position and play physically. When we did get at the rim, they had 6-foot-6 at the glass. Shots were just difficult and it wasn’t our night defensively. I am proud of our effort though.”
Shelby says goodbye to four seniors in DeVito, Foltz, Miller and Avery Lambert. Gallaway thanked each of them for their years of commitment in the program and doesn’t know what he will do without them next year.
“I am trying not to think about it,” Gallaway said. “They put so much into our program. Landon came here last year and bought into everything we asked. Brayden has been a four-year player and a starter on a Final 4 team. He leaves everything on the court. Avery bought into his role defensively and I am just proud of all four of them.”
It was the final game for DeVito, who ends a legendary basketball career to go with an even more impressive football career. He will go down as one of the greatest players in program history and arguably the single greatest athlete in Shelby High School history.
“It’s unbelievable and unthinkable,” Gallaway said. “He is going to be a two-time first team All-Ohioan in basketball and three time All-Ohioan in football. Throw in a Mr. Football runner-up. Last year, he made it to state in track and earned All-Ohio honors and will do the same this year. That is unheard of. It has been a privilege to get to coach him. He showed young guys at Shelby that they can play three sports and excel at all of them at the highest level. He did things the right way. We are going to miss him.”
But he and his fellow seniors set great examples for future Whippets to follow.
“I hope so,” Gallaway said. “That is the mark the seniors are going to leave. They made the program better than they found it and hopefully that translates to the youth and the middle school guys. They showed what it took to play at a high level because of the work they put in and how to treat others.”
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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Despite district final loss, Shelby boys basketball extends program standard
Reporting by Jake Furr, Mansfield News Journal / Mansfield News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
