Blair caps career with third All-Ohio selection
Mar. 28—GREENWICH — Isaac Blair has experienced it all in high school.
He performed in front of large crowd at a major university for a state championship. The South Central senior has also played his share of high-level regular season and tournament basketball — as well as large crowds in football.
But none of that compared to games in front of just a handful of people as a little kid. In fact, when Isaac and Sam Seidel took on older brothers Simon Blair and Isaiah Seidel, the stakes were clear.
"I probably played harder in those than some games even this year as a senior in high school," Isaac Blair said. "Those games were really competitive."
From a skill level, Isaac refined his abilities through various offseason workouts and travel sports.
But the drive that led him to one of the greatest nine-month stretches in the history of South Central, the Firelands Conference — and Huron County sports in general?
"It was those games in the backyard," he said. "That's where we got our competitive edge."
On March 22, Blair was named to the Division IV All-Ohio third team in boys basketball. Essentially, that meant Blair was a top 30 player in the state in a division that featured 200 teams.
It was the third All-Ohio honor in a nine-month stretch, giving Blair a rare trifecta of recognition in under a year's time.
But to get there, it started at the Seidel home with a lowered basketball rim.
Little brother
In Isaac's eyes, there was no sense running from it.
He could let the pressure get to him, or reject the expectations his last name inevitably carried.
"That never affected me at all," Isaac said. "It was more like, 'Yeah, I am Simon Blair's little brother.' He really pushed me, and it was great having a mentor like that to look up to."
Simon Blair graduated from South Central in 2020. His 1,771 points are the most in program history, and second in FC history.
The three-time Firelands Conference Player of the Year and All-Ohio first and second team selection also led the Trojans to their lone district title in the last half-century. He is now a double-digit scorer at NCAA Div. II Malone University.
Simon was a senior when Isaac was a freshman. They were teammates, though with the Trojans winning 21 games, Isaac played sparingly.
It also meant the next three years saw another Blair in the S.C. lineup.
"I really embraced it," Isaac said. "I know I'm Simon's little brother, and I know he's one of the best players to come through the conference.
"Simon working with me helps me become a better player. Having to play him one-on-one makes me a better player. Those were things I wanted."
That started when Isaac and Simon were in grade school. With Brett and Krista Seidel as teachers at South Central, it meant summers and weekends off.
And that meant a heavy dose of the two Blair boys playing games with Isaiah (2020 graduate) and Sam (2022 graduate).
The four played ruthless games of "dunk rim." On a lowered rim, the quartet played 2-on-2 games simply trying to dunk on one another.
Those games were held inside and outside. The four boys also played contentious games of Wiffle ball in the backyard.
"It was almost daily, and sometimes the younger boys were getting the best of the older brothers," said Brett Seidel, who just finished his 14th and final season as the head basketball coach at S.C.
"My two sons and the Blair's were ball boys and competed daily. It was sometimes more competitive than my own practices."
As a player at South Central, Brett Seidel scored 1,224 points, still third all-time. As a coach, his teams were 192-129 with three FC titles and the district championship in 2019.
But he sees a similar situation with Isaac growing up behind Simon as his sons did under him. Except now, Isaiah and Sam are college baseball teammates at the Div. I level at Bowling Green State University.
"I think we all deal with that at some point, and now I am known as Isaiah and Sam's dad," he said. "I think Isaac did a great job of embracing being Simon's little brother. He not only made a name for himself — but also is one of Simon's biggest supporters.
"They love each other, but do compete when playing. Even after the banquet they were in the gym playing one-on-one."
New experiences
The premise was fairly simple.
Recent graduates Carson Music, Parker Gray and Trey Beverly made a promise to Isaac last year.
If he came out for track and ran the 4x400-meter relay with them, they would reach the state championships in June.
It became much more than that.
The quartet famously dropped a full 10 seconds off their time in just two weeks. And when Blair stood on the track — waiting for Gray to hand him the baton for the third leg in front of thousands of fans at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium — the Trojans were just a couple steps off the pace.
After the first 100 meters, Blair gave the Trojans the lead. When he handed the baton to Beverly for the final leg, the race was nearly dead-even. Isaac and his teammates then watched Beverly finish off the race to give the school it's first state championship that wasn't a single individual.
"It was really a surreal moment," Blair said. "Something that wasn't expected to happen, but then when we got there and had a slight chance, it was really a motivational thing.
"It pushed me to have that same feeling in different events and sports."
In the fall, though he had played football throughout high school, the success carried over from track in a big way.
Blair caught 12 passes for 120 yards and three touchdowns in the season opener at Willard. He had 11 catches for 196 yards and two more TDs a week later vs. Galion Northmor.
He went on to total five games of 10-plus catches and 100-plus yards, and caught TDs in eight of the Trojans' 11 games. In a game South Central needed to win to avoid slipping out of the playoffs, Blair caught 10 passes for 192 yards and 3 TDs in a 36-8 win over FC rival Plymouth.
For the season, he caught 92 passes for 1,153 yards and 19 touchdowns — good for the All-Ohio first team in Div. VII. Those are program records for catches, yards and touchdowns in a season. The 92 catches are tied for the 26th-most in OHSAA history, and the 19 TDs are tied for 10th-most in state history.
"It was a game-by-game thing, I don't think I realized what the numbers were as a whole as it was happening," Blair said. "I just kept having pretty good games. Brandon (Mitchell) kept getting me the ball, which is really what it comes down to.
"I think in the end, it was my teammates helping me out."
Basketball finale
The accomplishments in track and football aside, basketball has been the main sport in the Blair household.
Ultimately, it wasn't a surprise to see Isaac go on to earn All-Ohio honors and score 1,000-plus points for the Trojans.
But that wasn't always the case.
In the limited role as a freshman, he scored just 17 points in the 25 games. On a 16-7 team as a sophomore, Blair scored 141 points, as he was again behind the likes of David Lamoreaux (1,207 points), Sam Seidel and Jackson McCormack.
Halfway through high school, Blair had just 158 points.
Yet he scored 1,083 in his career — good for seventh all-time in program history.
"If he would have got significant time as a freshman, he and Simon could realistically be 1-2 in scoring history here," Brett Seidel said. "He was very small and skinny as a freshman, not to mention our roster included a lot of really good players.
"I think by the second half of his sophomore season you could really start to see the player he is."
Blair agreed, noting he realized near the end of 2021 that he'd have to be one of the top scorers moving forward.
"That offseason I worked hard in the gym alone, doing drills that my brother taught me and that coach suggested," Blair said. "I worked really hard that summer."
That was evident from the start in 2021-22, as Blair helped the Trojans reach 18 wins and a district championship game after scoring 434 points (16.7 average).
This season, Blair was playing without two expected starters, Hagen Adams and Karl Ferber, because of season-ending injuries from different sports. South Central scuffled to a 9-14 season, but he averaged 21.6 points per game.
With 492 points, he had the seventh-most points in a single-season at South Central — just 10 points behind his head coach. He scored 926 points over his final two seasons of high school.
On top of earning All-Ohio third team, Blair also was selected as the FC Player of the Year. That was no small feat, given Crestview went 14-0 in the league with its leading scorer, Justice Thompson, averaging 15.6 points per game.
"I think we do much better with Hagen and Karl," Blair said. "But the season wasn't the best, so getting that award meant a lot."
In the pantheon of the FC and South Central, Blair's nine-month stretch has few comparisons. Though Brett Seidel noted it was ironic he finished just behind Doug Dendinger — another three-sport All-Ohioan at S.C. — in career scoring.
"I believe Doug is the only other athlete in school history to be all-state in three sports," Seidel said of the former Ohio State catcher. "That is pretty elite company to be mentioned with.
"And to be honest, Isaac played up a year in travel baseball with Sam, and he definitely could have done well in that sport as well. He's one of the best all-around athletes in South Central history."
To reach his feats, Blair said he stood on the shoulders of many.
"It's a lot of great accomplishments for sure," he said. "It's something I didn't expect to happen, but I'm thankful I had the ability to do it. My brother helped me, and my family took me around traveling all over to a bunch of events over the years.
"There were a lot of people who helped me improve to even be able to do those things."
