Kirtland’s girls’ basketball team finished the 2017-2018 regular season with a 22-0 record and the Hornets went on to set a new school record with 23 wins in a single season.
On Monday, head coach Bob Bell was named by a statewide media panel Ohio’s Division III Coach of the Year and Sydney Snyder and Jenna Sayle both earned All-Ohio honors.
“I’m very honored and surprised,” Bell said of the coaching honor. “It’s one of those things you cannot win unless you have really good people around you.”
In 47 years of coaching, Bell has accumulated a 493-396 record and is 281-12 in 17 years at
Kirtland. He has guided the Hornets to 10 Chagrin Valley Conference titles in the last 14 years and 14 sectional championships during that span.
He has won numerous coaching awards in his career but the All-Ohio honor is his first.
“I have had good people around me such as good players and an outstanding support cast including my wife, who has done an incredible amount of work behind the scenes to help me in all 47 years of my coaching,” Bell said. “Also, I have had good assistant coaches like Julie Madden and I have a tremendous support cast from Kirtland Schools and the community in general. They all have been very supportive to me.”
Snyder, a senior, was named First Team All-Ohio after averaging 21 points, 7.7 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 4.1 steals per game. She was a Special Mention All-Ohioan last winter.
“Receiving first team All-Ohio is something I have worked for since the beginning of my freshman year,” Snyder said. “It was one of my major goals and I couldn’t be happier with my results, but without my teammates by my side, this honor wouldn’t be made possible. We all had each other’s backs which made each of us so successful this year and I am still so proud of every single one of them.”
Sayle a junior, averaged 11 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 1.9 assists per game.
“It’s a really nice honor for her being a junior,” Bell said. “I think there is a lot more really good basketball coming from her in the future. I think both of those girls can be an inspiration for the rest of the girls in our program.”
Snyder, who also was named Division III Northeast Lakes Player of the Year and the Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division MVP, hopes her teammates will follow in her footsteps.
“For my teammates returning next year, I want them to know that hard work does pay off and that every second you put in to getting better it will only make you a better player and teammate in the future,” she said.
Snyder and Sayle will compete in the 2018 Ohio Varsity Senior Shootout and Underclassmen Showcase at Ursuline College on Sunday, March 18. The girls’ Underclassmen Showcase tips off at 2:00 p.m. while the Senior Shootout begins at 4.
Click here for more information on the event.
