By Bob Strohm
bstrohm@wbcowqel.com

The Quicken Loans Arena will be going to the Dawgs in March as the local youth basketball team will travel to Cleveland to play a game.

Since the 1980s Ben Lash has been taking teams he has coached up to Cleveland to play on a pro court beginning with St. Bernard’s at the Richfield Coliseum. Lash will revive that tradition as he is set to take the Dutchtown Dawgs to the Quicken Loans Arena to play March 29, prior to the Cavs versus Rockets game later in the evening.

Currently in their third year of existence, the Dawgs will leave their home court of the Friendly House in Mansfield for a chance to play on the same court that have been the stage for many of the NBA’s hardcourt legends. Lash explained how the students are feeling about the experience.

“They’re excited, but it is a little tempered because we have to sell 200 tickets, and they are concerned about that, but we are going to go,” Lash said. “I’ll make it work some way or another.

Currently the team has 60 tickets to sell prior to the Feb. 12 deadline.

Lash explained what his personal favorite part about the experience is.

“The look in their eyes,” Lash said. “I’ll always enjoy taking kids to the New York City trips that we used to do and just to show them that as wonderful as Crawford County and New Washington is there is a lot more to the world. Open their eyes a little bit give them experience.”

The Dutchtown Dawgs are two teams comprised of students from Buckeye Central, Colonel Crawford, Galion, Willard, Hopewell-Loudon, and Ashland.

“These are a dynamic group of kids,” Lash said proudly. “To be on the team you have to have a copy of your grade card and birth certificate. When they were collected, the grade cards had 90 A’s and four B’s. That to me is the thing I am most proud of regardless of what is done on the court.”

The Dutchtown Dawgs are set to take court between 1 and 2 p.m. on March 29. The Cavs-Rockets game has a tip-off time of 8 o’clock that evening.

For more information on the game, or to purchase tickets for the Cavs-Rockets game, email Ben Lash at blash@woh.rr.com.