It had been several years since Windham alum Cameron Pozsgai stepped foot on the Marty Hill Court where he played four years of basketball. In his return to his alma matter, the 2013 graduate was honored by the Athletic Hall of Fame Selection Committee on Jan. 10 at Windham High School and inducted into the Windham Athletic Hall of Fame.
“It is just an honor,” Pozsgai told The Weekly Villager on Jan. 18. “I grew up around Windham. I have gone there my entire life. I have looked up to all of the past inductees and all of my coaches and fellow players and everybody who helped me along the way, and it is an honor to be inducted into Windham’s Athletic Hall of Fame.”
During his four-year varsity career with the Bombers, Pozsgai averaged 15.0 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four steals per game. He becomes the second Pozsgai inducted into the Athletic Hall of Fame in as many years, as his father and former Athletic Director William, was named an honorary inductee in 2023.
Pozsgai said that he has applied athletics to everything in his life since he was a child. He can still recall how competitive some his chess matches were with his father when he was only six-years-old.
“He was like, it is going to build competitive edge and will help him in life because that is the competitive nature that you need to have to be successful in anything that you do,” Pozsgai noted.
He said that he usually followed his father to Windham High School even before he attended the school and would usually spend his early mornings practicing in the gym and working on his shot with the shooting machines.
According to Pozsgai, teachers would walk by the gym and hear the sounds of a basketball dribbling on the courts and they would know it was him. It seemed impossible to pry him away from a basketball court. In addition to his father having played basketball in high school and college, Pozsgai said it was a sport he enjoyed because it just took a lot of the stress away.
Even as a freshman, Pozsgai saw significant varsity minutes while also spending some time with the junior varsity team. He said it was a significant sign of trust from revered Coach Marty Hill, the winningest basketball coach in Portage County history, to reward him with varsity playing time.
“It definitely meant a lot,” he said. “It showed the trust he had, and he saw the ability in us as players. He saw something in us that we probably did not even see at the time and it was an honor to be on the court as a freshman playing for such a rich history program.”
Pozsgai became a varsity starter in his sophomore year and played at all five positions throughout his career, but his natural skill-position came at either shooting guard or small forward.
“Personally, I think I had all of the weapons,” he added. “I could shoot the 3-point shot with the best of them in the State of Ohio and I could drive because I had the size. I was not always the quickest, but I knew ball-positioning where I was in regard to the person guarding me to be able to get to the hoop and I also had the ability to use post moves like a big center would.”
In all four years, Pozsgai was a member of Bomber squads that played in the district championship. After losing in the district final in his freshman season, Windham clinched district banners in the next three years. Each time the Bombers met the same fate by having their season end in the regional semifinal.
During Pozsgai’s three years as a full-time varsity starter, his leadership shined through and he named a team captain in his junior (and senior) years. Despite having a laid-back style, Pozsgai quickly earned the trust of Coach Hill and his teammates to be recognized as a two-year team captain, a rare feat for any player in the program.
“It was the way that I played and the way that I practiced,” he said. “Everything in my sophomore and junior year showed that I was blooming into a good leader and that is another thing that Coach Hill instilled in me.”
Pozsgai’s season senior was his best one, as he was named Co-Player of the Portage Trail Conference, sharing the honors with his teammate Matt Knight, and has now been rewarded with a spot on the Athletic Hall of Fame wall outside the gym.
