Horan savors basketball memories at Ringgold, Fairfield

By WAYNE STEWART

For MVI Sports

Basketball standout Mike Horan graduated from Ringgold High School in 1995 and later from Fairfield University. Over that time, he and postseason play became very well acquainted.

Foremost was Horan’s being a member of the Rams 1995 state championship basketball team as their 6-8, 225-pound center. He was the seventh Ringgold boy to top the 1,000-point plateau.

“My most memorable experience leading up to the state title was playing against Monessen,” he recalled. “We lost early in the season. It killed me because my grandparents lived in Monessen and my father’s from Monessen. 

“There was a respect for each other, but we knew we were better than them. I was so mad after the game, I walked into the locker room and punched the frame out of a wooden door.”

The Rams were comprised of  a core of four players: Czar Walsh, Jeff Tyree, Jamont Kinds and Horan.

“We grew up together from kindergarten. All of us started as juniors and seniors,” Horan said. “It wasn’t about being the best person on the team, it was just us playing together and enjoying it. We added Tony Thomas and Matt Lusk off the bench—that really helped.”

Looking back on that postseason, Horan recalls a game against Erie Cathedral Prep, a team starring Jed Ryan, who played AAU ball with Horan.

“We were expected to lose,” he said, “but to beat them the way we did — with the last-second shot by Walsh, probably a 30-footer to tie at the buzzer in regulation, then pulling away in double overtime.”

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