Correspondent photo / Robert Hayes Westminster senior Austin O’Hara looks to pass out of a YSU double team Thursday night.

YOUNGSTOWN — Having dealt with injuries during his junior and senior years of high school, Austin O’Hara wasn’t sure whether or not he wanted to play college basketball.

So, the Girard native turned to the one person who could relate to his predicament — his older brother Dylan.

Dylan O’Hara had been through it all during high school and college basketball careers. He started off at Waynesburg after graduating from Girard, but suffered an injury that ended his time there. After attending classes at Youngstown State for a year, he wanted to return to the hardwood and ended up just across the state line at Westminster College in Pennsylvania.

After dealing with an ACL injury his first year in New Wilmington, Dylan started to find his groove with the Titans, averaging 10 points per game. Dylan was then granted a fifth year of eligibility due to his medical hardships earlier in his college career.

Dylan getting a fifth-year of eligibility made the decision easy for Austin.

“One of the reasons I came to Westminster was Dylan getting a fifth year,” Austin said. “(Before that), I really didn’t know if I wanted to just keep trying to work back to it…We had a chance to play together and I got to play with him for a year…He really showed me the ins and outs of what it was going to take to get some playing time my freshman year.”

With the age difference, it was the first time the duo had the opportunity to play together.

“Coach (Kevin) Siroki was really the only coach that gave me the opportunity after I got hurt twice (in high school),” Austin said. “It was probably a little bit on Dylan’s part too because (Siroki) saw what Dylan could do. There really wasn’t any other choice. If I was going to play, it was going to be for Coach Siroki to play with Dylan.”

As much as the sibling rivalry growing up between the two was one-sided, Austin admitted, it has been greatly beneficial for him in the long run, especially in helping him get acclimated to playing at the college level.

“He kicked my butt a lot,” Austin said. “He’s four years older than me, so he was always a little bit older. But he taught me how to compete. I got to play with older guys, guys that were a lot bigger and stronger than I was. Dylan was a heck of a player, so he set the bar high. I’m really just trying to chase it and play my game.”

Dylan led the President’s Athletic Conference (PAC) in scoring that season with 18.2 points per game and graduated. After putting his degree in early childhood/special education to use for a year, Dylan couldn’t resist the call to return to the basketball world and returned to Westminster as an assistant coach under Siroki.

Now a senior himself, Austin has been able to play for his older brother the past two seasons.

“Now being able to be under him, I get to see his perspective because he’s fresh out of (playing),” Austin said. “He knows what a lot of (PAC) teams like to do. He knows my strengths and weaknesses. He’s been my biggest fan and my worst critic, so it’s been a really cool experience and it’s been really beneficial for me.”

PIPELINE ACROSS THE BORDER

The O’Haras are part of a pipeline that has fueled a lot of success for the Titans during the latter part of Siroki’s 11-year tenure — a pipeline that draws its roots in the Mahoning Valley.

Westminster currently has 11 players from the Valley on its 18-man roster — Tyler James (Warren JFK), Jordan Zupko (Mineral Ridge), Andrew Clark (Springfield), Reese Leone (West Branch), Austin (Girard), Jaxon Hendershott (West Branch), Drew Weir (Salem), Alex Rothwell (Springfield), Quincy Jones (Chaney), Trey DePietro (Boardman) and Joey Donofrio (Heartland Christian).

Former East standout Deontay Scott and Canfield product Jarret Vrabel were two of the first Valley products during Siroki’s tenure to find a good deal of success with the Titans when they joined the program in 2014.

“They were kind of the cornerstone of our program as we started building it and they did a great job,” Siroki said of the two +1,000 point scorers. “They’ll probably be in our Hall of Fame someday and things just started flowing from there. Other players saw how good Division III basketball was and how good we could be. I give those guys a lot of credit for talking about our program and showing other guys that Division III basketball is good.”

From there, the Valley players just kept coming, plus it helped that Siroki and members of his staff were from the Valley as well, so they could connect with the players from around the area.

“I know what kind of basketball and what levels of basketball there are in the Mahoning Valley,” Siroki said. “So we’re going to continue to recruit the Mahoning Valley and obviously we’ve been very successful with it, so why go away from it when you’re successful.

“It’s been a joy to see all these guys who played AAU together and then played against each other in high school now playing with each other on the same team. It’s awesome for them to come together and bond and see the friendships and relationships they’ve built over the past five, six years to now.”

Clark, who is from New Middletown, said his familiarity with some of the fellow Valley players on the team, such as now-graduated brothers Daniel and Anthony Ritter from South Range, helped influence him towards ending up at Westminster.

“I watched (teammate) Bobby Ray (Jefferson) play in WKBN’s Game of the Week,” Clark said. “Rothwell went to school with me — Jaxon, Reese, just being able to see these guys play in high school and be able to now play with them is a really cool experience.”

The Valley kids got their shot at the hometown school Thursday night, as Westminster visited the Beeghly Center to face YSU.

Even though the Penguins handed the Titans their second loss of the season, 117-65, DePietro said the experience was still like a home game for them.

“I (had) a lot of family and friends coming in to see me, especially since winter break is upon us,” DePietro said. “So it’s really good and there was a lot of energy (Thursday night).”