By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com

It’s only a small percentage of high school athletes in Ohio who earn all-state honors. David Kalb did it in three sports. Fewer still are the number of people who can say they took on the greatest basketball player on the planet head-to-head and won.

Kalb can say that too.

The 2000 Wynford graduate will be his family’s second entry in the Wynford Athletic Hall of Fame. His father, Don Kalb, is already enshrined.

“It meant a lot,” David Kalb said of joining his father in the Hall. “I remember growing up all I ever wanted to do was play basketball for Wynford. That was always the ultimate goal. It was special.”

Kalb said he never sensed any real pressure to follow in his father’s or his older brothers’ footsteps, or match their long list of accomplishments.

“I never thought about it. I remember going and watching my brothers,” Kalb said. “There was never anything I liked better than going and watching my brothers.”

Kalb did concede he put pressure on himself once he became a senior. He wanted to have a better year than he had as a junior. On its face that is easy to understand. But looking at his junior year, it’s also understandable why it was difficult to do.

As a junior, Kalb racked up the honors in football, basketball, and track. On the football field he did it all for the Royals and led the North Central Conference in passing yards. He earned first team All-NCC honors both as a quarterback and a defensive back. He also punted and returned punts.

On the basketball court Kalb again led the league, this time in points, assists and steals. He was first team All-NCC, All-Crawford County, All-District 6, All-Northwest District and third team All-Ohio.

It was more of the same in the spring on the track. He won the NCC meet, county meet and district 300-meter hurdle races and qualified for the state track meet where he medaled.

In his final football season Kalb again led the league in passing as well as interceptions with nine picks. Again he was first team All-NCC and All-Crawford County – both as a quarterback and as a defensive back. The honors didn’t stop there as he was All-District and first team All-Ohio.

The Royals captured three consecutive NCC crowns with Kalb at quarterback and his final season he not only had nine interceptions, but also recorded 101 tackles and threw 12 touchdowns passes and scored 12 TDs of his own running the ball.

“I grew up and never played organized football. We would go into the back yard at halftime of Browns’ games and throw the ball around, run some pass patterns,” Kalb said. “I might not have even been a quarterback, or only a quarterback, had I gone to a larger school.”

Kalb’s final basketball season came to a halt part way through the year when he suffered an injury. He was able to come back before the season was over and still finished his career as a 1,000-point scorer with 1,037 points.

“I think just knowing I was going to come back,” Kalb said of how he mentally handled the challenge of being sidelined. “The hardest part of that was playing my last home game. It helped I had one more sport.”

Even with the extended time on the sideline, Kalb was still named first team All-NCC, All-District 6 and selected to play in two all-star games, one of which was the Ohio-Kentucky All-Star Game.

Kalb more than made up in the spring for what had happened in the winter. He claimed 300-meter hurdles titles at the NCC meet, the Crawford County meet and finished fifth at the state meet. He also set a school record in the long jump that remains intact today.

“I never got nervous for anything more than I did for track,” Kalb said. “The 300 hurdles were the worst. I never got more nervous than I did before a big race. But there was never a better feeling than winning.”

Not surprisingly, Kalb continued his athletic career in college and played a year of basketball at the University of Akron before transferring to Capital University, his father’s alma mater, where he played for two more seasons. He graduated with a degree in radio, TV and film.

But he wasn’t done playing basketball.

Kalb won the LeBron James Trick Shot Challenge and took down The King by beating him twice in a game of HORSE.

“Beating LeBron, he’s the best,” Kalb said. “Somewhere in the middle he said, ‘We’ve got a damn HORSE shark.’ I think I caught him off guard. He was awesome.”

Although Kalb had an impressive array of trick shots that included shooting over the backboard, it was a very simple shot he used to dethrone The King.

“I finished him with a granny free throw,” Kalb said.

That impressive outing led to appearances on the Spike TV show, “Pros Versus Joes,” where he squared off one-on-one against ex-NBA stars Alonzo Mourning, Antoine Walker and Robert Horry.

Kalb also played for the Southern California Fukinese Association’s team in the
Super Kung Sheung Cup International Basketball Invitational played in Hong Kong against international competition. Kalb made the trip in 2008, 2010 and again in 2013.

Kalb’s team won the tournament in 2010. He led the tournament in assists that year and was named tournament MVP.

“That was unbelievable,” Kalb said of playing in Hong Kong. “That was one of the coolest things I got to do. Our team was completely stacked. We had five guys average double figures.”

Currently Kalb lives in Huntington Beach, California, and works for a large shipping warehouse.