KBA News is proud to recognize our Sports Editor Jim Dabbelt for his involvement in the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s State Tournament. Having established a nearly four-decade career in sports writing, Dabbelt said it was an honor to be asked to preview the girls’ state basketball tournament both in print and over the airwaves.
Thirty years ago, Jim Dabbelt attended his first girls’ basketball state tournament. At the time, he was part of the bench personnel of the Tippecanoe High School team that advanced to the state championship game in 1986 up in Akron. Dabbelt said he was asked by the high school girls’ basketball coach to assist with stats and records while he was a senior, and his work with the team essentially sparked his passion for sports writing.
Now 30 years later, he is a regular familiar face sitting at press row at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus covering the Ohio High School Athletic Association state tournament.
A current Tipp City resident and 1986 Tippecanoe graduate, Dabbelt added to his impressive resume this year, as he was asked to write the state tournament preview story for the official souvenir program sold at the state tournament.
“I was really honored when the call came in from the OHSAA asking me to write the tournament Preview story, that’s a pretty big deal,” Dabbelt said. “I felt it would be a great networking opportunity for me, and it would allow me to utilize my knowledge of girls’ basketball around the state to help them out.”
Dabbelt, who has been active in girls’ basketball for the past four decades, assembled the preview after attending the Final Four coaches’ meeting at the Schottenstein Center the Sunday prior to the start of the state tournament. By the next day, it was completed and ready for print.
“I’ve been doing girls’ basketball for so long, it’s just an honor for them to choose me,” he said. “It shows what hard work can do.”
For the second consecutive year, Dabbelt also previewed the tournament for the OHSAA Radio Network, which aired on their pregame show later that week. He said the switch from writing to speaking wasn’t much of an adjustment, as he has worked in radio many times before, appearing on weekly basketball shows as well as once having a show of his own.
“I am just happy to be involved with such a great organization such as the OHSAA,” he said. “They do a great job running the tournament, and I would find it difficult to believe that any state could have a better event that this one.”
Dabbelt runs The Dabbelt Report, which is considered the premier girls basketball online source around the state, and is also the Sports Editor for KBA News, which includes the New Carlisle News, Enon Eagle, Tippecanoe Gazette, and Troy Tribune. He said he really enjoys being a part of a “hometown paper,” as he said it gives him the ability to “promote local athletes.”
His son is also a member of the Tippecanoe track and field team, keeping him close to home most of the spring until travel ball gears up in the summer.
