YELLOW SPRINGS — What’s it take to win a championship? Good talent, good coaching, and good feelings. Comedian Dave Chappelle helped Yellow Springs out with that last one.
Before the season he bought new uniforms, shoes, bags, and travel suits for the boys and girls basketball programs at Yellow Springs middle school and high school.
It might seem silly or even disingenuous to say that new uniforms helped the Yellow Springs boys and girls varsity basketball teams win Metro Buckeye Conference Championships but the effects are undeniable.
“It almost is as simple as that,” Corinne Totty, Yellow Springs junior guard, said. “We put it on and we went out in the game and even before the game we were talking about it, this looks so good. Like we’re so excited.”
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“Look good and we feel good, we had a little swagger in us it helped on and off the court,” Eli Eyrich, Yellow Springs junior guard said.
Before the season head boys basketball coach Nick Trimbach was fundraising to try and help buy the varsity boys basketball team new uniforms. It’d been 5 years since they had new threads. Part of those efforts included reaching out to the family of a former player, Ibrahim Chappelle.
When Dave Chappelle talked with Trimbach and Yellow Springs athletics director Jeff Eyrich, the comedian decided he wanted to do much more.
“I reached out to Elaine his wife, who’s been awesome throughout all of this and just asked for a fraction of it,” Trimbach said. “He went above and beyond. He was honestly more excited than Jeff and I were. He just wanted the kids to feel important.”
Buying new travel gear, bags, shoes and more for not only the boys basketball team but the girls as well all the way from 7th grade to varsity.
“He just really cares about everyone,” Aaliyah Longshaw, Yellow Springs junior guard said. “He wants everyone to feel like a part of the community.”
The players previously had to pay for their own travel sweatsuits.
“It does help because some people they can’t pay for some stuff so like Dave Chappelle going out and buying stuff really helps us and I really feel like all of our new stuff helped play into us playing better,” DeAndre Cowen, Yellow Springs senior forward, said.
“It definitely made the basketball program feel more important because we’re really a soccer and volleyball school,” Angie Smith, Yellow Springs senior guard said. “But to get all this stuff for basketball it’s like wow, people kind of care.”
While they can’t put corporate logos on uniforms per OHSAA rules they were able to add Chappelle’s ‘C’ logo to their sweatpants. The support though has been much more than money. Chappelle has gone to boys and girls games including the boys’ conference championship clinching win Tuesday.
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Chappelle would just as soon remain anonymous with the donation but understood in Yellow Springs word would eventually get out. After the team won the title they invited Chappelle to cut down his own piece of net just like he was one of the team.
On the travel sweatpants the team even sports Chappelle’s iconic ‘C’ logo. It’s been much more than just monetary support, Chappelle was even on hand Tuesday as the boys won the league title and they even invited him to cut down his own piece of net.
“To have Dave at games supporting them,” Trimbach said. “Every game that Dave’s come to they’ve won by 20 or more.”
“This is the most I’ve ever seen Dave living in this town my whole life,” Totty said. “He’s come to the games a lot and just seeing him in the stands it’s been unimaginable really.”
The boys basketball team won its first conference championship since 2016. The girls won only the second in program history, the other coming in 2013. Both teams are hoping for even more success in the postseason. They certainly have a great feeling and new swagger that they didn’t have in past seasons.
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