Boys basketball: Logan Forbes finds a home at Cloverleaf

Logan Forbes is much more than a big young man making a big impact for the Cloverleaf boys basketball program. The 6-foot-9, 220-pound Forbes, a four-year starter who is averaging 19.1 points, 14.3 rebounds and 3.2 blocks as the Colts (9-6, 4-4) prepare to play at Field (2-11, 1-7) tonight in Metro Athletic Conference play, also is a great student, unpaid assistant coach, emergency clock operator, mentor, referee, laundry worker and janitor. "The kid does everything for us," Cloverleaf coach Jack Banks said. "Sometimes he finishes the coaches' sentences in the locker room. When we go into practice, he asks what drill we're about to do. When we're in scrimmages, he's running the clock when he's not playing. "The impact he's had in the Cloverleaf community with the younger kids is amazing. He refs our youth games, and I never have to ask Logan to come. He just shows up. He's even washed our uniforms before and swept the gym floor. This kid is very entrenched in Cloverleaf basketball. "I had a couple college coaches ask me, 'Is he for real? Does he do this stuff all the time?' Yeah, he does." Those coaches don't come around much anymore because Forbes has signed a letter of intent to continue his career at Division II Malone University. But before he leaves Westfield Township for Canton, Forbes, who carries a 4.2 grade-point average and plans to major in data analytics with an eye toward becoming a basketball coach, wants to continue to add to the legacy he already has built at Cloverleaf. With a minimum of eight games left in his high school career, Forbes has 1,106 points, which trails only Parker Hewit (1,289), Brycen Holiday (1,216) and Steve Kuzyk (1,169) in school history. If he maintains his current scoring average for those eight games, Forbes would finish with 1,258 points, but don't rule out him surpassing Hewit, especially if the Colts play more than one postseason game. Over his last four games, the 18-year-old is averaging 28.3 points on .687 shooting (47-for-67), 15.0 rebounds and 4.0 blocks. That includes a 30-point, 20-rebound, eight-block performance Wednesday in a 73-59 MAC victory over Ravenna, which is believed to be the first 30-20 game by a Medina County player since Wadsworth's Kyle Prunty had 33 points and 20 boards against Highland on Jan. 4, 2013. "After my freshman year I thought, 'Maybe I can be pretty good at this,'" Forbes said. "Everyone wants to go play in college, but that's when I knew it was possible. "My freshman year I wasn't a scorer. It wasn't, 'Get the ball to the big guy.' If I scored, I scored. After that, I knew I was going to start the rest of my career, so every year I tried to add something. My aggressiveness to score has developed and so has my consistency down low. That was my biggest gain." Forbes' journey to Cloverleaf was a long one, as he switched schools numerous times due to job transfers or changes for his parents, 5-9 Shelly and 6-4 Dan. Always the tallest student in his class and sometimes the tallest in the entire school, Forbes lived in Pennsylvania until midway through his third-grade year, when he moved to North Carolina. Midway through his fourth-grade year, the family moved to another part of North Carolina. Prior to his fifth-grade year, it was back to Pennsylvania, where Forbes remained until coming to Cloverleaf prior to his eighth-grade year. "It's kind of cool living in different areas, so I got used to it and it never really bothered me," he said. "I was more hesitant coming to Ohio because I was finally settled in (in Pennsylvania) and lived there the longest, so I had the most friends. "Now I've realized it was well worth it. This is a much better place than the area where I was at. I mostly compare it to sports, and the opportunities I've had here are 10 times better." Initially a volleyball player, Forbes started playing organized basketball in fifth grade and quickly took to the game. The Colts have been the primary beneficiary, as he has totaled 837 rebounds (11.2 average) and 205 blocks (2.73) while shooting .527 from the field in 75 career games, including .612 as a senior. "He gives us a low-post presence that not too many teams have these days," Banks said. "The game is about 3-point shots now, but we still use high-low action. Defensively, he gives us a presence where no one wants to go into the lane. The rebounding, Logan always seems to be where the ball is. "And he's still not a finished product. His best basketball is ahead of him." Aside from his old-school dominance in the post — and maybe even including it — Forbes' most unique physical characteristic is his full, grown-man beard, which makes him appear a number of years older than he is. Forbes began getting peach fuzz when he was 11 years old and "started having to shave a little bit" between his eighth- and ninth-grade years. After his sophomore year, he grew a full beard. "It filled in pretty fast," he said. "The last time I fully cut it was during COVID because I was wearing a mask. (Without facial hair) I look like a kid. I look real young. The older, bearded look suits a tall guy better." Banks agrees. "When he shaved it, it kind of spooked me out," the coach said with a laugh. "He's a bearded child. That's what I always call him." Even before he had the beard, a lot of people didn't believe Forbes when he told them how old he was because he was so tall. "In sixth grade when I started AAU, my mom started carrying my birth certificate everywhere," he said. "People always questioned it. Then when I had the beard, it was even more." The beard having been around for nearly two years, these days Forbes is most noticed for his dominant play and kindly acts at Cloverleaf, where he has come to feel completely at home. "The first time I came here was for a basketball camp," he said. "I hadn't even attended school yet. The full Cloverleaf team was there and I met everybody, and that was the start of making friends here. The easiest transition was finding people who were like me and played sports and that kind of stuff. "I've always loved basketball. When I started playing it, it just felt natural to me. It felt right." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.