Ben Falkenberg. (PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY RON SCHWANE)
Albert Grindle
Basketball was so important to Ben Falkenberg, Joe Capotosta and Nick Goddard that they made the West Gym of the old Wadsworth High their sanctuary.
Even on Sundays when no one was around.
“We had a three-phase system of getting in,” Falkenberg recalled with a grin.
Yes, the three amigos were caught sneaking into the school eventually — more on that in a bit — but only after they shot hoops to their hearts’ content.
Phase No. 1: John Gramuglia was coaching in the adjacent wrestling room, so a back door was propped open for wrestlers to enter. Piece of cake.
Phase No. 2: One of the exterior doors was a “prison gate” with vertical bars. Falkenberg was so skinny he could contort his body to get through the gate and unlock it from the inside. A little more difficult, but possible.
Phase No. 3: On Fridays after — or even during — school, one of the three grabbed a piece of mulch to jam the door lock. The door would appear closed to the naked eye. A mischievous deception.
“We did that every other weekend,” Falkenberg said.
Falkenberg, Capotosta and Goddard probably knew the gym as well as the janitors. They figured out how to run the electrical system to ensure only the lights behind the baseline curtain were turned on — just in case someone walked by the main entrance — and left no evidence.
Finally, a janitor caught them red-handed. According to Falkenberg, no one with authority was overly upset but perplexed as to how the three gained access.
“We would say, ‘The door was open. I promise you the door was open,’ which technically wasn’t a lie,” Falkenberg quipped.
No discipline was handed out, just an ultimatum to give up the secret — not playing basketball after hours, but how to get in.
Such a story encapsulates what the sport meant to Falkenberg, who will be inducted into the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame during Thursday ceremonies at The Galaxy Restaurant in Wadsworth.
However, don’t forget Falkenberg always had Goddard and Capotosta by his side. The real story is the lifelong friends met and memories were gained along his basketball journey meant more.
The inspiration
Falkenberg was technically born a Grizzly, coming into the world at Wadsworth-Rittman Hospital as Bob and Elizabeth’s first child on Aug. 10, 1985.
Bob was a teacher for Wadsworth but soon got a job elsewhere, meaning Ben and sister Laura, two years his junior, spent their childhood in Westerville, a Columbus suburb. The family then moved to Toledo before returning to Wadsworth in 1998, and Bob ultimately became a principal for Cloverleaf.
Ben was entering seventh grade when the family returned. He was a burgeoning soccer star, and his Columbus club team recommended Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy.
Falkenberg instead chose to play for Wadsworth, mainly to meet his future classmates.
“That was one of the best things I ever did,” he said. “They hated all the kids on the (CVCA) team.”
Though soccer was Falkenberg’s first love, he gave it up partly because playing basketball was how he really became one of the guys.
Those two years in Toledo helped Falkenberg’s development, especially because he was 5-foot-8 and maybe 120 pounds. Playing against bigger, faster and stronger competition in Toledo made Falkenberg a fearless scorer at Wadsworth Middle School, even if he couldn’t shoot a lick quite yet.
Attending a Grizzlies varsity game as an eighth-grader on Feb. 9, 2000, changed Falkenberg’s world.
Wadsworth was playing rival Medina. Bees guard Tony Stockman became a legend that night, scoring 38 points in the final 17½ minutes en route to a school-record 42 as Medina rallied to win 71-59.
After witnessing Stockman dazzle despite the Grizzlies student section harassing him with sing-song chants of “One-man tee-eem,” Falkenberg knew what he wanted to do.
“I remember coming home and talking to my parents and them saying, ‘That was nuts, huh?’ ” Falkenberg said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I’d really like to be like that.’
“(Stockman) was really having fun and doing whatever he wanted. This is weird because it felt like it was out of a movie, but I said, ‘I want you guys to push me. I want to be like him.’ ”
Bob obliged, videotaping Ben’s shooting mechanics in the driveway and critiquing with meticulous detail. Falkenberg became arguably the greatest shooter in county history on pure willpower.
The inspiration came from a Wadsworth rival who eventually became Falkenberg’s friend, as they worked out together in Medina when Stockman was playing professionally and Falkenberg was in college.
Those days gave birth to an argument that burns wildly to this day: Who was the better shooter?
“I’m a much better shooter than Tony was,” Falkenberg said in a playful tone. “I will fight that until the day I die, and I’ve told him that to his face.
“He couldn’t guard me, but I couldn’t guard him. … He’s the best player out of here (Medina County). It’s not even close.”
Grizzly nation
Wadsworth was coming off its 17th straight winning season when Falkenberg entered high school, so he wasn’t delusional. Junior varsity was the only goal.
Falkenberg was content being a JV star and developing chemistry while practicing with the varsity. Sneaking into the gym for extra reps with Goddard and Capotosta also became a habit.
Falkenberg’s first varsity start was opening night as a sophomore, Nov. 30, 2001, at Hudson. Goddard was bombing 3-pointers and 6-7 All-Ohio center Doug Bell was gettin’ buckets as Wadsworth led by double-digits after three quarters.
But Bell got in foul trouble and the Explorers rallied to tie the game with seven seconds left. Wadsworth coach John Martin called a play for Goddard to take the winning shot.
He wasn’t open. A long-ago frazzled Falkenberg fired out of desperation.
It went in. Wadsworth 79, Hudson 76.
“That was pretty cool,” Falkenberg said. “There was nothing that can really compare to your first varsity game hitting a game-winner.”
The rest of the season wasn’t as rosy for Falkenberg, who averaged an inconsistent nine points — he once followed a 26-point game with two — but grew leaps and bounds mentally. He had to adjust to more physically mature opposing players, co-exist with a back-to-the-basket big man and handle adversity when the Grizzlies started 10-0 but finished 7-6 and lost the Suburban League title to Tallmadge.
Though Bell graduated, Falkenberg, Goddard, Capotosta and D.J. Schrock were returning starters in 2002-03. They went undefeated in the summer, setting the stage for a winter showcase.
With a relentless, pressing, run-and-gun system often featuring five-man substitutions, Wadsworth completed the only 20-0 regular season in county history and won the SL for the first time in six years. The Grizzlies won 16 games by double digits and completed perfection with a 107-49 blowout at Highland.
The 5-10 Falkenberg averaged 15.8 points while shooting a county-record .554 from 3-point range. He took fewer shots than Goddard and led the Grizzlies in assists but remembers instead the team’s synergy, athleticism and unselfishness.
Goddard was Klay Thompson to Falkenberg’s Steph Curry, fearlessly launching hand-in-face 25-footers. D.J. and Ben Schrock were the undersized, hard-working posts. Capotosta was the glue guy with a high basketball IQ. Mike Marshall and Paul Macko were the football-tough athletes who wreaked havoc defensively. Austin Seigneur, Griff Wilson and Brett Smith had their moments as well.
Falkenberg, Goddard, D.J. Schrock and Smith still text each other nearly every day.
“When we weren’t together on the court, we were together off the court, too,” D.J. Schrock said. “Everyone noticed it because we always spent time together no matter what it was — playing basketball, playing video games, going to the pool, whatever.
“We always pushed each other. We were really, really competitive. We’d play 2-on-2 or 3-on-3, and every time — as much as we liked each other — we’d get in fights with each other, but in the long run we knew we’d be best buddies.”
“I’ve talked to the guys now and tell them, ‘High school basketball is supposed to be fun,’” Falkenberg added. “It’s different. It’s loose. Everything about that year was how fun it was.”
Except the way it ended: a 49-46 loss in overtime to Medina in the Copley Division I Sectional finals. Goddard was sick. Bees coach Jody Peters’ slowdown game plan was stifling. Falkenberg was outscored 19-6 by another future summer workout partner, Dontaie Anthony.
The 11-10 Bees beating the 20-0 Grizzlies remains one of the biggest stunners in area history.
“I’ll be 31 this summer,” Falkenberg said, bringing up the game unprovoked. “I still think about that — I don’t even know — maybe weekly. It still affects you. It sounds like you have to move on, but I’ve actually only been to the Copley gym one time in 14 years because it makes me so upset.
“We panicked a bit because we didn’t know how to handle close games. Goddard had mono. Everything went wrong at once. We still talk to this day, group text all day, and we talk about that game every March.”
Wadsworth fans forgot about the loss quickly because of Falkenberg’s brilliant senior season.
The Grizzlies remained dynamite, going 20-3, repeating as SL champions and averaging nearly 70 points per game. Falkenberg posted 21.8 points, 2.9 assists and 3.2 steals and was named to The Associated Press Division I All-Ohio first team as one of the state’s best one-on-one scorers.
Falkenberg was known first as a tremendous 3-point shooter, but that hardly told the entire story. He patterned his game after Duke star Jay Williams’ headiness, bald-headed NBA guard Jason “White Chocolate” Williams’ flashy handles and Stockman’s ability to shoot off the dribble.
The high pick-and-roll with the beefy Ben Schrock was Wadsworth’s half-court bread and butter. Falkenberg only needed a sliver of room, either pulling up for a 3-pointer, breaking down the defense from the high post or finishing at the rim acrobatically. Being square to the basket meant little because Falkenberg could nail fadeaways from awkward angles.
Falkenberg wasn’t a spot-up 3-point specialist. He was a scorer. Period.
“He was so electrifying hitting those 3-point shots,” D.J. Schrock said. “But the way he could handle the ball and create his own shot was magnificent.”
The turning point in the 2003-04 season came with a 55-48 home loss to Green that snapped a 24-game SL winning streak. The Bulldogs ran a triangle-and-two defense, with David Lough and Bill Cundiff holding Falkenberg to three points. Lough is an outfielder in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, while Cundiff got an NFL tryout as a quarterback.
According to Falkenberg, there was minor friction within the team because he was shooting more than the previous season. The Grizzlies’ seniors were still learning how to play together because Falkenberg’s development had been a year ahead since eighth grade.
As with everything in Falkenberg’s life — on the court or off — a negative turned into a positive.
Wadsworth won the next seven games by an average of 14.6 points as Falkenberg pumped in 25.7. Included was avenging the loss to Green in the district semifinals.
“Coming out of that (Green) game, we sat down as a team and said, ‘OK, we can’t have that,’” Falkenberg said. “I’m always looking for guys and thankful for screens, but that was a good reminder of like, ‘There’s a reason I am who I am.’
“The guys were so supportive. It was, ‘All right, we need you to score. We need to do what you need to do.”’
That reality check resulted in the most epic scoring performance in school history.
The Grizzlies opened the tournament against 14-7 Hudson, which lost to Wadsworth 70-65 early in the season. The day began poorly for the Falkenberg family, as Laura’s Grizzlies girls team lost to Barberton 60-59 in the district finals after a controversial call on an inbounds play.
“Dad was like, ‘Ben, we can’t go 0-2 today,’” Falkenberg said.
Son made sure Pops got a worthy consolation prize.
Falkenberg was locked in, scoring 17 points as Wadsworth led 21-15 after the first quarter. He was held to five points in the second — all in the first 2:42 — but Macko scored 14 in the period to put the Grizzlies ahead 43-30.
Falkenberg was just getting started, as he scored 24 points in the second half — mostly from the foul line — and Wadsworth won 80-63. Falkenberg had 11 field goals (six 3-pointers) and 18 free throws to break legendary point forward Bob Lyren’s 44-year-old school record with 46 points.
“The previous year we lost in the first round, so carrying that weight into the game I said, ‘I can’t let this happen again,”’ Falkenberg said. “I remember being in the (pregame) captains’ meeting and yawning. One of refs was joking, ‘You awake? You going to be all right?’
“But I was so naturally calm. The game hit and it was on.”
The Grizzlies reached the Copley D-I District title game before falling to Medina in double overtime in front of an overflow crowd of 3,056.
Falkenberg finished with 1,031 career points. He shot approximately 51 percent from the floor, 50 percent from 3-point range and 89 percent from the foul line as the Grizzlies went 57-10.
Wadsworth is 138-131 since he graduated.
Cougar chronicles
Falkenberg committed to play for the United States Naval Academy early in the recruiting process. The Annapolis, Maryland, campus was the most impressive he’d ever seen. How could he say no?
Reality hit when Falkenberg officially arrived at the school. He instantly regretted going to Navy to play basketball instead of going to become an officer while having the privilege of playing basketball.
The retirement of head coach Don DeVoe was the deciding factor. Falkenberg left midway through his freshman year and “was a man without a country” and “embarrassed” to return home.
In stepped a relationship with Mount Vernon Nazarene coach Scott Flemming, who met Falkenberg while recruiting Bell. The up-tempo, offensively-driven NAIA school was giddy to accommodate, so Falkenberg enrolled shortly after leaving Navy.
Forced to redshirt, Falkenberg watched from the sideline impatiently. He also gained 20 pounds of muscle in the weight room and quickly developed chemistry while practicing with the team.
Falkenberg picked up where he left off.
In four years at Mount Vernon Nazarene, Falkenberg scored a school-record 2,616 points while shooting .472 from the floor, .441 from 3-point range and .893 from the foul line. The Cougars made the NAIA D-II national tournament all four years, highlighted by a quarterfinal appearance in 2006, and compiled a 98-33 record.
Playing in a starting lineup that once went 7-0, 6-8, 6-6 and 6-3 along with himself, the electric, now-5-11 combo guard was a three-time All-American, including first-team nods as a sophomore and junior, and two-time NAIA scholar athlete.
Falkenberg finished 10th in college basketball history — regardless of division — with 463 3-pointers.
Mount Vernon Nazarene is 89-127 since he graduated.
“It’s hard to put into words because it was everything that I hoped college would be like,” Falkenberg said. “I loved basketball so much and worked so hard at it, it’s hard to describe. Your whole year revolves around it. Your whole summer revolves around it. All the hard work paid off.
“Walking in there, it seems like so long ago. I didn’t even remember what my life was like, but I go back and see my name here, my picture there and it’s like, ‘Oh, yeah. I used to do this.”’
Falkenberg began eyeing a professional career. He had the perfect mentor in Stockman, who played in Europe and South America, and produced highlight films featuring shake-and-bake buckets for agents.
But Falkenberg’s body began to fight back. He broke his wrist as a sophomore, had plantar fasciitis as a junior and endured multiple bumps and bruises as a senior. His newlywed wife, Tonya, was extremely supportive, but Falkenberg was mentally fried.
“I remember sitting down and telling my wife, ‘I’m so excited to do something else. I don’t want to do this anymore,”’ Falkenberg said.
Life without basketball
Falkenberg was a pre-med major at Mount Vernon but didn’t have a vision of a professional future without basketball. His sister suggested anesthesiology because it didn’t require rigorous schooling.
So that’s what Falkenberg did, eventually landing with Mercy Medical Center in Canton. He’s been there five years and loves what he does.
Falkenberg also settled down, buying a house just north of downtown Wadsworth in 2013. His daughters — Nola, 2, and Lena, who will turn 1 shortly after the hall of fame banquet — have provided “more fun than I could have ever imagined.”
Falkenberg hasn’t shot a basketball in two years. He went back to soccer and tried tennis for a time, but really fell in love with road cycling, which keeps him in tremendous physical shape.
Even though it feels like a past life, he’ll always have a spot in his heart for basketball.
Basketball is what provided him an avenue to make friends at Wadsworth.
Wadsworth basketball is what got him an appointment to the Naval Academy, which in turn steered him toward Mount Vernon Nazarene.
Mount Vernon Nazarene is where he met his wife.
In his wife he found his companion and children.
And in his wife and children his life came full circle — back to Wadsworth.
“It’s always felt like home to me. It really has,” he said. “I love Wadsworth. A lot of people when they move away from Wadsworth, they realize how neat of a little bubble it is.
“It was really cool (playing basketball for Wadsworth). I remember the first time we moved back, we went to the gym and I couldn’t believe it. I was starstruck by how big this gym was. I could not wait to play in that gym. Everyone talks about that gym. It was such a magical place. I loved the rims, I loved the backboards, I loved the scoreboard. It was a love affair.
“To be surrounded by so many great people, it was special. Coach Martin, I had a lot of respect for him as a man the way he treated us. To be a part of that was great. It was really a cool thing. You take it for granted when you’re in that moment, but when you get out of it you realize how special it was. I’m always thankful that was something I got to be a part of.”
Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.