Medina County Sports Hall of Fame: Breakthrough as senior set up Brunswick's Pat Forsythe for college, pro career

It should be nearly impossible for someone almost 7 feet tall to come out of nowhere, but Pat Forsythe pulled off the feat as a Brunswick High School senior basketball player. Listed at 6-foot-9 with the Blue Devils and 6-11 at the college and pro levels, the left-handed Forsythe averaged 4.9 points as a Brunswick junior. Just 220 pounds at the time, he blossomed as a senior, averaging 22.5 points on .660 shooting, 12.5 rebounds and 6.14 blocks while being named Gazette MVP and first-team Division I All-Ohio. Only the fractured right ankle Forsythe suffered in the postseason kept Brunswick from a berth in the district finals, as the Blue Devils lost 47-44 in overtime to Berea in the district semis without their star center. "I expected a great season, but what I did, it's an anomaly," the 32-year-old Forsythe said. "It's not the norm to see a jump like that in stats. I put in a lot of work — and the work paid off — but I was not expecting the year and the numbers I had." The work paid off to the tune of a full scholarship to West Virginia, where he received a medical redshirt, four more college seasons and an NCAA Tournament appearance at Akron, then one season playing professionally in the G League, which was called the NBA Development League back then, and a pro season each in Estonia and Saudi Arabia. For all those reasons, Forsythe, who currently lives in Brunswick, works in the fitness industry and is a well-muscled 6-11 and 285 pounds, will be inducted into the Medina County Sports Hall of Fame during June 25 ceremonies at the Galaxy Conference Center in Wadsworth. Not bad for a guy who didn't play organized basketball until the eighth grade at what was then Brunswick's Visintainer Middle School. "You could tell this kid was going to be something special," high school teammate Anthony Ocacio said. "His junior year he was starting with a group of seniors who had already been there, so he was filling a role by playing defense and rebounding. "Everybody was leaving and we didn't have any scorers coming back, so we all got in the gym and went to work, but Pat took it to another level. It was like a whole new Pat. He just put the team on his back." Forsythe didn't just put up big numbers, he did it against some extremely good teams and players in the Northeast Ohio Conference Valley Division. Mentor was loaded, Medina had 6-8 Kenny Kaminski (Michigan State, Ohio University), Strongsville had 6-8 Aaron White (Iowa) and Garfield Heights had guard Trey Lewis (Penn State, Cleveland State) and 6-6 forward Tony Farmer, a national recruit until running into trouble with the law. Those players all preferred to play facing the hoop. Forsythe, who grew to 6-11, 245 in college, was an old-fashioned, back-to-the-basket, low-post, rim-protecting center. "I felt like I was playing basketball with Greg Oden," Ocacio said of the No. 1 pick in the 2007 NBA Draft after one season at Ohio State. "Every single game he might have a triple-double of points, rebounds and blocks. I'd never seen anything like it." INCREDIBLE SEASON Forsythe's family moved frequently when he was young, so he attended school in a number of districts, including Cloverleaf and Medina. The family settled in Brunswick prior to his eighth-grade year, and not long after that Blue Devils varsity coach Joe Mackey got an email from a Visintainer teacher informing him there was a 6-5 kid roaming the hallways. Forsythe, who had played just about every sport but basketball growing up, was approached about giving the game a try and talked it over with his dad, also named Pat. "I had hit a growth spurt and was super tall, so my dad said, 'Why don't you try it?'" he recalled. "I went to tryouts, made the team and it was a good experience. I was a very raw hustle player who did a lot of rebounding and not much scoring. I had a crazy hitch in my shot and was still learning how to play basketball, but I really enjoyed it." Despite his size, Forsythe played on the freshman team as a ninth-grader and on the junior varsity as a sophomore, when he dressed for varsity games but did not letter. As a junior he was approaching 6-9 and became a varsity starter, but didn't figure too heavily in the offense, which was in the capable hands of 2009 Gazette MVP Tyler Ferrell and Kyle Payne, who had 49 points in an 86-83 triple-overtime win at Brush. "He was one of the only guys to block my shot consistently," said the 6-5 Ferrell, who went on to play at Wheeling (W.Va.) University and Baldwin Wallace. "It just came naturally to him. He was always around the ball. "He was a tall, skinny kid back then, but he got in the weight room and put the time in. It all paid off for him. Those numbers (the next season) were definitely crazy." Not long after his junior season ended, Forsythe was pulled aside by Mackey. Ferrell and Payne were about to graduate, so the message was short and sweet. "We told him he was going to be surrounded by freshmen and sophomores, and for us to have any kind of success he had to be the best big man in Ohio," Mackey said. "That's exactly what he became." Forsythe put in a ton of work, much of it with former Brunswick big man Brian Schmidt, who was instrumental in his development and now serves as the school's assistant athletic director. Forsythe also played for a run-and-gun, high-level AAU team called the Cleveland Cavs, and by the time he showed up for summer workouts it was clear he had taken Mackey's words to heart. Playing on a team that included freshman point guard Ryan Badowski, sophomore wings Kyle Wheeler and Alex Harthill and senior power forward Matt Dunning, plus reserves Ocacio, Zach Gresch, Patrick Jarvis and Ray Brown, there weren't many nights when Forsythe didn't dominate. "Everybody on that team knew Pat had to have a special season in order for us to be anywhere near successful," Wheeler said. "Trey Lewis or Aaron White or Kenny Kaminski or (Shaker Heights') Terry Rozier, as good a college or pro careers as those guys had, I don't think I've ever seen someone dominate a high school game like Pat did. He was scoring with three guys on him or he'd kick it out to us for wide-open shots. He was probably even better defensively. He commanded the paint every single night." Though Forsythe's ankle injury played a big part in ending the Blue Devils' postseason run, neither he nor his teammates and coaches will forget having big-time college coaches lining the walls and baselines to watch Brunswick practice. One particular day, when almost 30 were in attendance, still stands out. "It was like the scene from 'The Blind Side,'" Ocacio said of the 2009 football movie. "All these coaches showed up and were just standing there. I'll never forget Coach (Keith) Sooy (then a Brunswick assistant) came up to me and said, 'Anthony, you never know. One of them might need a 5-11 shooting guard.' It was just a different feel. It was unheard of at that time." COLLEGE AND THE PROS A long and arduous recruiting process was eventually whittled to two choices: Ohio State or West Virginia. When Forsythe made his decision, he piled into a minivan with his dad, stepmother Nancy Forsythe, Mackey and assistant coach Tom Harrington. They were headed to Columbus to officially commit to the Buckeyes, but something strange happened en route. "I got a phone call that someone had taken my (scholarship) spot," Forsythe said. "I just said, 'OK, we're going to West Virginia to become a Mountaineer.'" Playing for legendary coach Bob Huggins, Forsythe appeared in seven games as a freshman, averaging 2.1 points and 3.4 rebounds, but he ended up receiving a medical redshirt due to a serious back injury. "It made me tougher playing for Huggins," he said. "He's one of those coaches you see and you think he's crazy, but behind closed doors he's caring and loving and willing to do anything for his players and staff. But he does not like to lose at anything. I had that with Mackey, but he took it to another level." While Forsythe's relationship with Huggins was solid, he could see West Virginia's five-out offense was not suited for a low-post center accustomed to using drop steps and baby hooks, so he decided to transfer to Akron, which ran a lot more sets and where he could play immediately for coach Keith Dambrot and still have four years of eligibility remaining. As a redshirt freshman, Forsythe appeared in all 33 games and averaged 3.4 points, 2.7 rebounds and 0.8 blocks as the Zips won the Mid-American Conference Tournament before losing 88-42 to fifth-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. One of three Akron players to suffer food poisoning, Forsythe was interviewed by Rachel Nichols on national television prior to that game while walking into the arena taking intravenous fluids. After averaging 4.9 points, 3.3 boards and 1.0 blocks in 2013-14, Forsythe put up a team-high 10.0 points to go with 4.9 rebounds and 1.3 blocks in 2014-15. He appeared in 33 of 35 games with 29 starts that season, finishing third in the conference with a .559 field goal percentage and earning third-team All-MAC honors. Forsythe's final college season (2015-16) was productive — he averaged 8.6 points and 4.9 rebounds — but he appeared in just 22 games (19 starts) before undergoing surgery to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. The Zips won the MAC regular-season title, but Forsythe was not in uniform when they lost in the MAC Tournament and to Ohio State in the National Invitation Tournament. "He was a hard worker," Dambrot said. "He was very enthusiastic about getting better and he had a big, strong body. He was a good player for us. He was very physical. Especially at the MAC level, he was very hard to push around." Counting his time at West Virginia, Forsythe appeared in 129 college games and earned a degree in business management. He was drafted in the third round by the Grand Rapids Drive of the D League, but ended up suffering two foot injuries and never appeared in a game in 2016-17. In 2017-18, he played professionally in Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people located in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. The team Forsythe played for was located in Tallinn, the capital city with a population of 456,000, but road games took him to Poland and Finland, with a number of opposing teams featuring former West Virginia teammates. "It was very physical, but that was more my speed," he said. "I was always in foul trouble in college because of my style, so it fit me and ended up being very good for me." The culture was great, the salary was decent, living arrangements were free and a lot of people spoke English, but Forsythe got a big pay raise when he played in Saudi Arabia in 2018-19. He lived in the historic city of Medina, which is considered the cradle of Islamic culture and civilization. Medina has a population of approximately 1.5 million, with about 40% of that comprised of foreigners. Temperatures in the summer average 84 degrees at night and 109 in the afternoon. "When it came time for prayer, they shut all the businesses down," Forsythe said. "It was a wonderful experience and the people were great. Once my stomach adjusted, the food was awesome, but my stomach was turning for the first week or two. "(The basketball) was definitely better than Estonia. It's a very prideful country. If you don't win, people are very upset." LIFE AFTER BASKETBALL Part of Forsythe wanted to keep playing professionally, but part of him also wanted to start a family. In the end, his body convinced him it was time to stop playing. After spending several seasons coaching high-level AAU teams, Forsythe got into the fitness industry. He worked as a district manager for Anytime Fitness in the Dayton area for a number of years, then joined Crunch Fitness in Brunswick in late 2024. Forsythe also became engaged to Strongsville native Samantha Hancy. They have a son, 4-year-old Oakley, and also are raising Hancy's older son, 9-year-old Jameson. "(Pro basketball) got to the point where it was a grind," Forsythe said. "My body was saying no and my heart was saying yes, but with me getting older and wanting to have a family, it was a combination of what I wanted for my future. "It's always a big what if with my injuries. What if this didn't happen or what if that didn't happen? I try not to dive too deep, but my injuries hindered my playing success. My personal belief is I should have had a way longer professional career, but all the injuries started to weigh on me mentally." Though he still plays in recreation leagues on occasion, family and fitness have become Forsythe's new passions. He benches 315 pounds, stays in great shape and competes mainly against himself these days, but he's happy. "I miss the camaraderie, playing for each other and playing for championships," Forsythe said. "I miss the coaching I got, the competitiveness, the traveling I got to do, all those things. "I was trying to fill a void, which is why I did a couple other jobs trying to find what I loved and what I could do outside of basketball. Once I got into fitness it was like, 'This isn't bad.' I get paid to train people and lift weights. It gives me pieces and parts of my past where it doesn't feel like a job." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.