Correspondent file photo / Robert Hayes. Warren JFK sophomore Didi Ryan drives in the lane to score around several Maplewood defenders during a game on Jan. 3. The Eagles had to re-invent themselves after Ryan got hurt at the end of January.

When Warren JFK lost star point guard Didi Ryan in late January, the Eagles, still determined to make a playoff push, had to re-invent themselves. The sophomore wasn’t just a key on-court piece, but a major part of the team’s identity.

The weeks between her injury and the start of the postseason almost felt as if it were a new offseason, as coach Marc Morgan racked his brain on where to go from there.

The tournament was less than a month away, and his team not only needed a chance to recover from the emotional loss, but the time and opportunity to settle into new roles.

While Kennedy has no shortage of talent on its roster, losing a player of Ryan’s caliber would provide a near-fatal blow to most teams.

Kennedy is not one of those teams.

While restructuring the team, the Eagles took their lumps. After defeating Girard in the game that Ryan suffered her injury, Kennedy lost its next three contests as injuries further piled up. By the game against West Branch, the Eagles were rolling out mostly JV players. It’s the only time this season they’ve lost more than one game at a time.

“She’s a constant leader. Even when she’s not in the game, she’s rooting for kids to score. You just don’t replace the point guard, you’ve got to replace the whole kid and that’s the most difficult part,” Morgan said. “Today she was in therapy, and not at practice, and you can tell (she’s not here) because you just don’t hear those things (that she does). If someone makes a shot, she’s always in their ear, always super positive. It’s just really odd to have to try to reinvent your team without that type of kid.

“We sat down with our kids and said, ‘Listen, this isn’t anything we can fix with one person. You have to collectively band together to figure out how to play without her. It’s not going to take one minute. This is going to take us every bit of three or four weeks to try to figure out and going, I’m not sure we’re going to ever get to a point where we figure it out. You just gotta hope we play well enough to beat the teams we’re supposed to play.’ And that’s kind of what we did.”

As the Eagles settled in however, they found their new selves. They ended the regular season with a big win over Lake Center Christian, opened the tournament with a pair of dominant wins over Leetonia and Mathews, and won the program’s first-ever district title on Saturday, taking down Middlefield Cardinal. In that game, Gianna Pompelia, who took over in Ryan’s stead, finished with 43 points.

The last month for Kennedy has been an emotional roller coaster. While the Eagles weren’t looking past the accomplishment, the locker room wasn’t as jubilant as the average district champion’s.

“I still think there was a lot of disbelief,” Morgan said of the post-game emotion. “Somehow we figured out a way to get there and then you win the game, and I really just think kids were more in shock than anything. Like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. We still had enough left to win this thing.’ We got into the locker room, and I could just see the looks on their faces. It wasn’t (a look of) super excitement. It was more like, ‘Oh, I just got off the biggest roller coaster of my life.’ That’s the look on their faces.

“It was definitely a different dynamic. (Last year when) we lost to Springfield, they were all crying, they were all sad, like completely upset. So I thought this year they would just be crazy for joy, and I had to get them to that point. … It was definitely strange to win a district title, and to have your kids in that moment not realize what they just did.”

While bringing home the program’s first district title served as an emotional lift, and banding together after the loss of the team’s centerpiece player sounds like the final scene of a sports movie, Kennedy continues on.

There’s still more basketball to be played for the Eagles after all. Awaiting them on the regional stage is Danbury.

The Lakers sit at 22-3 after downing Seneca East to win their district final matchup. The senior-laden squad reached this same game last season with a junior-heavy roster, falling to eventual regional champion Loudonville.

“They’re very smart. They know how to move the ball. You’re not going to do something to them the entire game and (have) them not adjust,” Morgan said. “It’s really a chess match. Obviously (Ryan) would make a considerable difference in this game, but you’ve just got to think a little bit differently. It’s out-of-the-box type basketball for me. It can’t be, ‘Hey, we’re going to go in and do what we do all the time,’ because they’re very similar to us. So it’s kind of like, ‘Who can bother each other the most and get them out of rhythm?’ For me, that’s the way that we have to play it.”

For a team that has been playing “out of rhythm” for the whole postseason, they may not be as easily disrupted. It’s a gambit, but when you’ve already overcome so much, why wouldn’t you take that bet?

“(The unpredictability is) kind of what we have to barter with,” Morgan said. “I hope that’s the premise that we can get them under and (we can) get a little bit of a lead on them. I think that’s huge for us if we can do that. They’re seasoned, they’ve been there. And if we come out and are flat and they get a 10-0 lead, I don’t know that we’re ready to combat that on that stage. … We’ve got to be able to execute against the things that they do and make them uncomfortable.”

Kennedy tips off against Danbury at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Massillon Perry High School.