Boys basketball: Close bond with Dad informs Maxx Bosley's life -- and basketball game

From making mission trips to Jamaica, Belize and Puerto Rico to playing basketball together at the Ohio State Reformatory and Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility to simply sitting around and talking about life, Wadsworth guard Maxx Bosley and his father Jami have an incredibly close relationship. Most of the time Jami, who scored a Stark County-record 2,077 points at Massillon Jackson High before going on to play at Ohio State and star at Akron, is the teacher, the person offering subtle pointers on how to draw a foul and much more important warnings about avoiding the mistakes he made early in his life. There are times, though, and they are the ones 46-year-old Jami cherishes most, when 18-year-old Maxx, without realizing it, has taught his father important life lessons. "What's really cool about Maxx, and he doesn't get this from me, is that he has an elevated sense of compassion," Jami said. "He cares about his teammates, his friends, his classmates. He's just got a really high level of compassion. "When we go to prisons and he talks to people, it hurts his heart to see the situations some of them are in. When we come home, he's so emotionally moved by the people he's met." Wadsworth boys basketball coach D.J. Schrock, whose Grizzlies (3-7, 1-5) will host Hudson (7-4, 3-3) tonight in Suburban League National Conference play, is in complete agreement with that statement. "Maxx is truly a special kid," Schrock said. "As hard as he competes on the floor — and he competes very hard — that's how he goes about his everyday life. He lives life to the fullest, and he'll do anything for anyone. "When my son (Jameson) turned 5 over the summer, one of the people he wanted at his party was Maxx. Sure enough, he showed up — with a present — and spent a good hour with my son." A muscular 6-foot, 185-pound shooting guard, Maxx leads Medina County in scoring at 25.5 points per game. Despite often being face-guarded or double-teamed — or both — while playing for a team that sometimes struggles to score, he is shooting .435 from the field, .310 on 3-pointers and .893 at the line. In a recent 2½-game stretch, Maxx scored an incredible 111 points. He had 26 in the second half against North Royalton, 40 against Woodridge and 45 in a double-overtime loss to Twinsburg, when he set a county record by making 27 free throws in 28 attempts. Last season as a junior, the two-time All-Gazette choice scored a school-record 47 points and pulled down 10 rebounds against North Royalton, going 16-for-19 from the field and 10-for-14 at the line. He had 31 points in the second half on 10-for-10 shooting, including four 3-pointers, and scored 18 straight Wadsworth points over the last 5:23 of the third quarter. For his career, Maxx has scored 1,196 points, which ranks 20th in county history. With a minimum of 13 games left to play, he would finish with 1,527 points if he maintains his current scoring average, which will be difficult given the attention he draws but not impossible. That total would break the school record of close friend, longtime teammate and 2023 Gazette MVP Solomon Callaghan (1,460), who is now playing at Wright State, and place Maxx second in county history, two points ahead of Highland's Brad Reusch and behind only the Hornets' Rob Wininger (1,842). Not bad for being the second-best player in his home, because Jami was even better. "I know just about everything he did in high school," Maxx said. "He was the man. I still go back and watch his games." A legend in Stark County, Jami is listed at 6-1 and 200 pounds on college basketball reference pages, but is actually only a hair — he had that in his playing days but shaves his head now — over 6-foot and played at 215 pounds. Having never lifted weights until he got to Ohio State, Jami not only set the Stark County scoring record while playing at Jackson from 1991-95, he also set school marks for career rebounds and assists. An incredibly tough and rugged player who dished out even more punishment than he took, Jami averaged 25.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 3.2 assists as a senior, when he made just 13 3-pointers. In leading the Polar Bears to the Division I state semifinals as a junior and regional semifinals as a senior, he made 685 free throws in his four-year career, which ranks third in state history according to statistics reported to the Ohio High School Athletic Association. That's one of the main reasons why Maxx, who has made 309 free throws in his four seasons at Wadsworth, has not played a game of one-on-one against his father, who now weighs 220 pounds, in a number of years. "We did it awhile ago, but we're so strong and physical now we'd probably end up fighting each other," Maxx said with a laugh. "When I go places with him to play basketball after the season, we don't guard each other. If we did, someone would get hurt, whether that's him taking his anger out on me or me hurting him because he's old." LEARNING THE HARD WAY Jami, who has worked in sales for 15 years for US SafetyGear, lived and breathed basketball growing up. The youngest of Gary and Ruthann Bosley's two boys, his dream was to suit up for Ohio State, so when he was offered a full scholarship to play for coach Randy Ayers, he basically accepted on the spot. Not long after he got to Columbus in 1995, Jami realized something was missing in his life. "My mom and dad were very serious about their relationship with God and their faith, but I was just the one that was always wired differently," he said. "I was the hyperactive one and I lived on the edge. I was super ornery. "Basketball was this outlet for me to go be crazy on the court and run it all out. I believed in God, but it never took root in my life because I never needed it. Everything I wanted in my life always happened." Jami played in 27 games and started 18 for the Buckeyes as a freshman, averaging 5.6 points, 2.3 rebounds and 1.2 assists, but got benched toward the end of the season. "My lifelong dream was to play at Ohio State," he said. "I got there and it was not what I thought it would be." Drinking and partying more and more, Jami and several others were arrested in May 1996 in connection with three cars being broken into in a campus parking lot. He pled guilty to attempted theft — a misdemeanor that was later expunged — and was kicked off the Ohio State team. "He still tells me to this day that playing at Ohio State was his main goal," Maxx said. "He didn't care about the NBA or (playing professionally) overseas. That was the goal of his life, but something was missing inside. "He told me that every night he would go out and drink. He went to Ohio State and lost it all. That keeps a good thing inside me, because he directs me down the right path and tells me not to get involved with all that other stuff." After not playing in 1996-97, as required of transfers by the NCAA, Jami went on to have a stellar career at Akron while playing for coach Dan Hipsher. He earned first-team All-Mid-American Conference honors as a redshirt junior, when he averaged 18.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists and was joined on the team by future NBA star Wally Szczerbiak (Miami) and Medina coach Anthony Stacey (Bowling Green), and second-team accolades as a sophomore and senior. Jami scored 1,435 points in his four years of college basketball but turned down offers to play professionally overseas because he was ready to get on with his life. He got a job, started drinking more and more and eventually became involved with drugs. Married in 2003 and divorced in 2006 — Maxx was born in 2005 — Jami knew something had to change, so he renewed and enhanced his relationship with God, began making mission trips as part of Kentucky-based Sports Reach and now serves as the team chaplain for the Akron men's basketball team. "Maxx knows everything about everything," he said. "I've always been an open-book person. "Because of the way I finally came into a relationship with God, and because of how important basketball was to me, I've kind of gone in the opposite direction with Maxx. I've never wanted him to feel like his performance on the court dictates how much I love him." TAKING IT TO THE MAXX Prior to the start of Wadsworth basketball games, Maxx is one of those rare high school kids who makes it a point to approach adults and speak with them. Always addressing people as "Mr." and "Mrs.", he'll fist-bump or shake hands with the clock operator, scorekeeper and radio, television and print media representatives, then go out on the court and expend every ounce of energy he has. "For me just to get open, I have to set up my guy," he said. "There's times out there when I'm so tired because I've run in circles a billion times just to get the ball. I'm tired out of my mind, but it's taught me how to move effectively without the ball, so now I'm not getting nearly as tired." In the next breath, not wanting to sound like he was a one-man show, Maxx heaped praise on current teammates like Finn Schmitt, the Grizzlies' center, and former teammates Callaghan and Caden Madigan, with whom he shared the court for three seasons before their graduation. Maxx also wanted to credit and thank his biological mother, Lori Puglia, who attends all his games and sees him every weekend, and stepmom Christina for the roles they have played in his upbringing. "She would do anything for me," he said of his biological mom. "All she wants is for me to succeed, and I'm thankful I have a great relationship with her. I'm really thankful that her and my dad getting divorced didn't get in the way of that. "My stepmom takes care of me and my dad and my stepsister (20-year-old Rylie, a 2022 Wadsworth graduate). She is amazing. I'm so thankful for her and I love her dearly." In physical appearance and from a competitive standpoint, Maxx is, first and foremost, a mini Jami, though he's certainly not small. Their styles are a bit different — Jami actually got a lot of his points while posting up — but both play the game with boundless joy and reckless abandon. "I've played pickup against Jami, and he's going to do whatever it takes to win," Schrock said with a chuckle. "There's no such thing as easy baskets when you're playing against him. You're going to have to earn them all, even if game point takes 20 minutes because of all the fouls. Maxx shares those qualities, which is truly special to see." Most special of all is how Maxx and Jami have used basketball to enhance their already great relationship and spread their faith. Whether visiting a prison and sharing stories with inmates or traveling to other countries, father and son cherish their time together. "I've come so far from where my life was, and I'm thankful because Maxx and I have a really, really, really unique relationship," Jami said. "We talk about everything, and I mean everything. My hope is I can steer him clear of the mistakes I've made." When the high school season is over, Maxx and Jami go to the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield about once a month. "Not everybody gets that experience," Maxx said. "The very first time I went over the summer, you go through a metal detector, then this gate and that gate. There are so many gates just to get to the gym. I walked in and said, 'Oh, my gosh, this is for real.' "But they're all so nice. They are so incredibly grateful we come and play them and bring them food. They're in heaven and they love it, but it breaks my heart because some of them are in for life." Maxx, who is drawing interest from Youngstown State, Indiana Wesleyan and Malone, made his first mission trip, to Jamaica, the summer before his seventh-grade year. The pandemic interrupted that for several summers, but prior to his junior year he went to Belize and prior to his senior year he went to Puerto Rico. The latter trip was particularly fulfilling because Wadsworth teammates Caden Shriver, Elliot Simmons and Reece Simmons went with him and his dad. "My love for the game has expanded because God allowed me to be the player I am," Maxx said. "I'm going through a really good time right now and I hope I can stay on that path, but there are still times when I think, 'Why am I playing like this? Am I really that bad of a basketball player?' That's God testing me." Maxx and Jami are more than happy to share their faith with others, but they don't push it on people. The same is true when it comes to Maxx's biological mom and stepmom. "Basketball isn't the most important thing in my life," Maxx said. "Our faith and our family are our main priorities. My dad has done a fantastic job in leading me to where Christ is No. 1. He thought he had the world in his hands and God said, 'No, no, no, no, no. If you're going to act like this, this is what's going to happen.' Me hearing all the things he went through, it's given me perspective on life and what to do and what not to do. "When people wrong me, I try to love them anyway. When kids don't treat me right at school, which happens, I try to turn the other cheek. Obviously I'm going to leave a basketball legacy (at Wadsworth), but I want to leave a legacy that I was always the kid who was polite, nice and kind." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.