CLEVELAND, Ohio — After St. Ignatius athletic director Rory Fitzpatrick and principal Anthony Fior approached basketball coach Tom Parker about playing their home game against rival St. Edward at Cleveland’s Public Hall, Parker took it to his seniors.
“I talked to my seniors before we started the season and asked them if they wanted to give up their home game vs. St. Ed’s and come to Public Hall,” Parker said Saturday after the Wildcats’ 71-67 win. “They said yes. This opportunity was great. We used to play the city championship down here back in the ’70s, so I knew it had some nostalgia to it.”
That nostalgia doesn’t just mean something to Parker, but also Cleveland Charge president Rocco Maragas.
He wants to have more high school basketball games at the downtown venue, which is in its second season as the Charge’s new home after moving from Cleveland State’s Wolstein Center. OHSAA basketball tournament games have not been played downtown since the 2020 regionals, when the season was canceled after a pair of regional semifinals at the start of the coronavirus pandemic. CSU had been slated to return as a tournament host in 2022, but it opted out a month before the tournament.
Regional sites have since shuffled from high schools to college campuses, including Kent State and the University of Akron.
While Maragas said he has not had any discussion with the OHSAA about serving as a tournament host, he is interested in making it happen.
“This is something that shows what Cleveland can do,” he said after the Wildcats and Eagles attracted an attendance of 4,891. “This is a state championship environment at the beginning of January.”
Maragas said Public Hall can hold a little more than 5,100 spectators for a basketball game. The Wildcats and Eagles filled most of the upper bowl and select seats on floor level that surround the court.
Currently, with the OHSAA’s new seven-division format that went into effect last season for boys and girls basketball, district final sites have served as hosts for multiple games in single days. Regionals have remained at mostly college sites, which is the stage both Parker and St. Edward coach Eric Flannery agreed makes sense for Cleveland.
“If you keep it local and the teams are playing close to home, I think you would have crowds like this,” Flannery said. “The venue was awesome. Obviously, we didn’t shoot it great and it takes a little bit of adjusting to, but all things considered, it should be a regional site.”
St. Ignatius sophomore guard Denahi Melton likened Saturday’s game to a state semifinal game, which he experienced last year at the Canton Memorial Fieldhouse. Senior teammate Alex Mack liked Public Hall better.
“It’s a big gym,” Mack said, “but just playing your rival in it adds a lot more to it. It was super loud. I wasn’t expecting it to be that loud, but I thought it was louder than the Final Four game last year.”
The OHSAA has moved the state semifinals back to Dayton and Wright State for this season and announced last month its adjusted format, which will have girls games played from March 12 to 14 and boys games from March 19 to 22.
The G League season runs past those dates, but Maragas doesn’t see an issue.
“There’s several examples of when a G League team has been able to host high school tournament games at their venue,” he said. “The Charge hosted high school tournament games at our venue before we moved the team to Cleveland, so we have the experience.”
That experience came in Canton, where Division II regionals were held at the Civic Center.
This year, Northeast Ohio is set to host only one of four Division I regionals, which will be at the University of Akron. Kent State and Wooster will serve as Division II hosts, while Medina High School and the University of Toledo will host Division III.
It might be too late for Cleveland to make a charge at this year’s tournament, but Saturday’s rivalry game served as a preview of what it could be.
“I think that this game shows you that you can actually host it,” Parker said. “It can fit the fans. It’s the perfect environment right in the middle of Cleveland. This would be great for Cleveland. I think we should think about making this a space, especially for regionals.”