West Branch's Boston Mulinix celebrates the go-ahead run with Carson Wike in the Div. II state championship game on Sunday. (Photo by Matt Morrison)

AKRON — West Branch had a storybook tournament run that ended in a 3-2 Div. II state championship win over Hamilton Badin on Sunday.

Like any great book though, the story had to end.

For West Branch coach Rick Mulinix and his group of five seniors it was their last ride together.

Coach Mulinix announced this week that this would be his last season as the head coach.

“You can think about things and wish things will happen and seldomly they come true,” Rick Mulinix said. “I feel like we tried to write this book 10 years ago all the way through and bam here it is and it happened.”

“We went out with a bang,” West Branch senior Beau Alazaus said. “There is no better way to go out than this right here.”

“We have dreamed about this,” West Branch senior Hunter Shields said. “Since we were 8 this has been our dream and know that it is here there are no words to describe it. I couldn’t ask for a better way to go out, couldn’t ask for a better crowd to be with and couldn’t ask for a better team to be with.”

For West Branch senior Jaxson Robb, who had been away from the baseball team for two years, it was an enjoyable journey to come back and join his teammates for one last ride.

“Its unbelievable,” West Branch senior Jaxon Robb said. “I played travel ball with Rick (Mulinix) as my coach and then my sophomore and junior year I took off, but I wanted to come back and play one last time.”

It is always a good way to end a career with a state championship and Mulinix will now have that perfect exit.

It’s time,” Mulinix said. “There is stuff that you have to deal with that you shouldn’t have to deal with and you know 24 years I have been coaching and it is time. I’m going to help out next year. Coach (Ryan) Wolf hopefully gets the job and he will take over and keep it rolling.”

Mulinix is happy that he made this career-ending accomplishment with the group of kids that he has.

“I know every coach in America says that they love their kids,” Mulinix said. “I can assure you that there is not a coach that loves his kids more than I do.”

The players enjoyed winning a championship for a coach who has been there every step of the way throughout their careers.

“He (Coach Mulinix) deserves that,” Alazaus said. “How much he does for our team and how much time he puts in.”

“It meant so much,” Robb said. “I wouldn’t want to win with anyone else, they are the best people in my life. He’s the best coach I could have and (they’re the) best friends that I could have, it is amazing.”

Game notes

¯ In addition to Mulinix, this was the last official contest athletic director Mike Helm was in charge of. He announced his resignation in January. Most well-known for coaching West Branch’s wrestling team to prominence, Helm had been West Branch’s athletic director since 2020.