LOUDONVILLE – It would make perfect sense if the members of the Loudonville girls basketball team received free passes to Cedar Point once this season ends.
There might not be another team in the area that can withstand a wild roller coaster of adjustments better than the Redbirds.
The LHS program was at a fever-pitch two seasons ago when it soared into the Division IV Final Four and set an Ashland County record with 26 wins.
Since then, the ’Birds have had to navigate the graduation of the area’s all-time leading scorer (Corri Vermilya), a coaching change, a brand-new conference and the loss to injury of star guard Mya Vermilya (two times).
Through it all, Loudonville just keeps winning.
Last year, in head coach Daryl Young’s first season with the program, the Redbirds finished 16-9 and advanced to the district finals despite never having Vermilya – an All-Ohioan as a freshman – due to a knee injury.
Then, on the road Wednesday night, they stomped Mount Gilead by a 46-12 count to lock in a share of a Knox Morrow Athletic Conference crown – the first in the league for any Redbird sport.
The school fully joined the KMAC in 2024-25 after spending two decades in the Mid-Buckeye Conference.
Loudonville (14-5, 11-3) needed a seven-game win streak to grab the title and had to do it without Vermilya, the team’s go-to scorer before a second knee injury stole away her junior season after just eight outings.
It was an improbable outcome and it was celebrated with some much-deserved Wendy’s Frosties after Wednesday’s win.
Young said he was more than happy to foot the bill.
“They talked to the bus driver and he took us there,” the second-year LHS coach said with a laugh. “If you keep the order to just Frosties, it’s not bad – you can keep it under $70.
“If I get the chance to spoil them, I love to do that.”
The math seemed fitting. Seventy bucks after seven wins in a row. Ten bucks per win for a title no one outside the program saw coming after the loss of Vermilya on Dec. 20 in a game against West Holmes.
The 5-foot-8 junior was averaging 14.9 points, 4.1 rebounds, 2.6 steals and 2.3 assists per game.
She missed her entire sophomore season after going for 13.5 points per game and hitting 60 3-pointers as a freshman starter on Loudonville’s Final Four squad.
Three times this year she had scored at least 24 points, including a 28-point outburst against Fredericktown that included seven 3-pointers.
Now, Young said he hopes Vermilya will be back working out with the team by the beginning of next season.
“To get only eight games in two years is just unfathomable,” Young said of her injury-riddled career. “When you’re just trying to figure life out (as a high schooler) and then this happens (it’s tough).”
At the time Vermilya went down, Loudonville was 6-2 and averaging 55.5 points per game. The Redbirds had just a one-point loss to Wynford (currently 15-5) and an overtime loss to Fredericktown (13-7) in that stretch.
Loudonville then dropped three of its next four without her, never reaching 40 points.
Young admitted he was a bit worried, but said he knew the mettle of this rendition of Redbirds was too solid to let a season slip away.
“At that point, we said, ‘Look, we’ve gotta go into every game like it’s a championship game, because it is from here on out. If you have something more to give, you’ve gotta give it,’ ” Young said.
“The girls took hold of that and I think that was one of the things that helped us turn the corner.”
Addi Wolford, a senior guard who has been a constantly evolving contributor for Loudonville in her career, said the climb back into the KMAC conversation was a challenge the team was ready to face.
“I know without Mya on the court, it has definitely been hard this season, but she’s stuck with us (as a leader on the bench) and it’s been great,” Wolford said. “Our team put a lot of hard work behind it, so it was awesome (to clinch a share of the KMAC).
“You can’t just hold back or be worried, you have to see what the next step is and just go forward from there.”
Wolford was the No. 8 player in Loudonville’s rotation as a freshman on a team that went 17-7 under former coach and all-time Ashland-area wins leader Tyler Bates (202-69).
In the Redbirds’ journey to the Final Four in 2024, she averaged 3.3 points and 2.5 steals per game as the first player off the bench – a scrappy defender who could hit a 3-pointer when needed.
In two seasons under Young, Wolford has been the engine that has made Loudonville go.
The Redbirds finished a game out of first in their inaugural year in the KMAC a season ago with an 11-3 record. She led the league in steals (4.8 pg) and tied for third in assists (3.4 pg) in that campaign.
This winter, the 5-5 guard is pacing the conference in 3-point percentage (31-of-84, 37 percent) and is among the league’s leaders in scoring (11.1 ppg), steals (4.1 pg) and assists (3.3 pg).
All of that comes after a huge volleyball season that saw Wolford become the first Redbird ever to accumulate 1,000 serve receptions and 1,000 digs in a career.
“Addi has been doing a great job of taking the ball to the hole,” Young said. “She’s come up with a couple different finishes on her layups this year that she didn’t have in the past.
“It’s been fun to see her develop as a point guard and as an attacking guard offensively. She put in a good summer with the team and I really attribute a lot of the success we’re having right now to that.”
Wolford’s duties as a point guard now are shared with Jordyn Johnson (8.4 ppg, 4.5 rpg), a sophomore whose buzzer-beating 3-pointer Jan. 14 at Fredericktown sent that game into overtime and led to a 44-41 LHS win.
Had it not been for that bucket, the Redbirds would not be sharing league gold with Centerburg (15-3, 11-3). Loudonville also handed the Trojans two of their three losses (49-37 and 49-40).
“Jordyn was a real spark off the bench and now she’s stepped into that role where Mya was and had to take over a lot more responsibility,” Young said. “She’s been doing well with it.”
The coach said Wolford and Johnson both have been central to the team cutting down on its turnovers from a season ago, and the two are key components to a 3-point brigade for the Redbirds this year.
Loudonville has six players who have hit at least 10 treys. The squad is shooting a solid 29 percent from downtown as a unit (120-for-419).
Not only have Wolford and Johnson (15-of-55) been trustworthy from beyond the arc, but guard Sylvia Spangler (14-of-49, also 7.1 ppg) and forwards Elly Hensel (22-of-62) and Abby Eikleberry (10-of-38) also can step outside for buckets.
Young said the deep ball has been a must-have for his team, particularly after the graduation of All-Ohio post player Alesha Felix (9.9 ppg, 10.5 rpg) left the Redbirds searching for more scoring.
“Some of the offenses I definitely set up this year to highlight those 3-point shots,” Young said, “because I knew we weren’t going to be big inside after Felix graduated last year.”
Hensel averages 9.3 points a game and her 3-point percentage (35.4) trails only Wolford in the KMAC. The 5-10 junior also is one of the league’s best rebounders (7.0 pg) and forms a solid inside duo alongside emerging 5-8 senior Eikleberry (3.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg).
“Eikleberry, particularly in this seven-game stretch, has been something special for me to see,” Young said. “She’s grown up and is just … doing all the nitty-gritty stuff.”
Wolford, Eikleberry, Vermilya and senior Kylar Staten are the captains on the team, which has a 4-1 record in games decided by five or fewer points and an 11-0 mark when holding opponents to 40 or fewer points.
“We’ve been playing together since we were in the second or third grade, so we’ve become really close and we’re all great friends,” Wolford said of the senior class. “It’s really special to get to do this together.”
Unlike some of the juggernaut teams of the recent past – when Loudonville was annually grabbing 20 wins a year behind a variety of 1,000-point, college-bound scorers – this season’s Redbirds simply find ways to successfully get to the finish line in games.
Young said it’s his squad’s cohesiveness and unity that has guided it back to the top of the league; LHS won the last eight titles while competing in the MBC.
Wolford, who just cleared 500 career points, agreed.
“Sometimes we have three or four girls getting double-digit points and it’s awesome,” she said. “I think we share the ball really nicely.
“We’re not out there just for stats or anything – we’re all trying to win just doing it for each other.”
Loudonville has regular-season challenges remaining against Norwayne (16-2), Lucas (8-10) and Triway (13-6) before it hits the postseason trail.
Two more wins would give the Redbirds at least 16 in a season for the 10th consecutive year – already a stretch unmatched in area history.
The team also could play in a district final for the fifth time in the last six years if things go right.
Young believes his squad has plenty left in the tank, and he should know. He surpassed 250 career wins this winter and now has six league titles in 13 seasons as a head coach after stints at schools in Arizona and Ohio, including three years at nearby Mapleton, his alma mater.
“God’s blessed us in great ways and we feel very blessed to be conference champs this year – that was one of our goals before the season started,” the coach said. “The other one was to make a deep tournament run and hopefully be district champions.
“We’ve got a tough road ahead of us, but hopefully we can get there.”