Basketball and Life: with Coach Jon Cook

Santino Davis was a standout player at St. Charles Preparatory Academy in Columbus, Ohio.  He graduated from The Ohio State University and began a career in the business world before being bitten by the coaching bug.  After serving as an assistant coach on the staff at St. Charles, Davis made the decision to go all in on coaching as a career.  Leaving behind his corporate career, he...

Not many coaches have ever had their very first head coaching opportunity slip through their fingers because budget cuts result in the elimination of their teaching position.  It happened to Roger McEldowney at Arcanum High School in the early 1990's.  Very few high school coaches are ever fortunate enough to win a state title. Roger McEldowney did, with the girls at Jackson Center High...

When I met Jeremy Best he was a smooth shooting lefty who played for Guy Neal at what was then Bluffton College.  Now Jeremy is the former head coach of Crestview High School in Convoy, Ohio.  In between those seasons of his life he spent time as the head coach at Hilltop High School and and Delta High School, both in northwest Ohio.  After an early career that saw him spend just 2...

The Bath High School girls basketball program began in 1971, and is nearing 900 wins in program history.  All of those wins have been accomplished by two head coaches... Two!  Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame member Gretchen Prichard led the program from 1971 to 1998 with a record of 460-116 during her 28 seasons.  When Greg Mauk became head coach in 1998 the often unspoken sentiment su...

Rob Summers is among a rather large group of people in the coaching profession whom I met courtesy of the Ohio Northern University Basketball Camp.  Of the entire group though, Rob may have the most intriguing odyssey through the game and into coaching.  He played at two high major Division I universities (Penn State and West Virginia, where he played for John Beilein), was drafted into the NBA De...

Brandon Pardon graduated from Lincolnview High School, near Van Wert, Ohio with one of the most storied careers in the history of Ohio high school basketball.  Two appearances in the Division IV state championship game including a 53-1 record in those two years and state title in 1997.  After high school, Pardon enrolled at Wright State University where he was a member of the Horizon Lea...

Whether it is the business world, marriage, preaching or coaching, the general consensus is that it just does not work out well to return to a previous position.  Well Steve Jobs would certainly disagree with that theory, and so would Scott Elchert.  Elchert began his teaching and coaching career at Jackson Center High School in 1989.  After five seasons as the junior varsity coach,...

Brett Norris grew up as the son of a coach.  He finished his high school career playing for the legendary Ray Etzler at Convoy Crestview.  After a college playing career at St. Francis (IN), he spent one year as the freshman coach before taking over as the head coach at Delphos St. John's High School.  After an amazing 10 year run with 3 trips to the state final four including a sta...

David McWhinnie graduated from Toledo Christian in 1992 and after a four-year career as a soccer player, he graduated and returned to his alma mater.  Following a brief stint as an assistant then a short time working in the Chicago area, he was given the opportunity to return and become the co-head coach of the Eagles.  After three seasons,  Coach McWhinnie became to head coach to b...

Brad Francis has had an unconventional route in the coaching profession. After nearly two decades as an assistant to longtime Russia High School coach Paul Bremigan, Francis stepped away for two years to enjoy his son's high school career.  A season assisting Eric Rosenbeck at St. Henry High School was followed by head coaching stops at Houston High School and New Bremen High School.  Co...

How many junior college basketball coaches are likely to have ever played football for Urban Meyer?  Well, Michael Hunter did for 2 years.  His basketball journey has taken Hunter to Columbus State Community College and then Ohio Northern University as a player, with coaching stops at Heidelberg College and Goshen College as well as Urbana University before  his current position at...

My guest for today's episode is Capital University Head Basketball Coach Damon Goodwin.  Coach Goodwin just completed his 26th season on the sidelines at Cap.  His coaching career began in 1986, after a stellar playing career at the University of Dayton under the legendary Don Donoher.  Following graduation Goodwin spent one season as a graduate assistant to Donoher before taking ov...

Tyler Niekamp is set to begin his 10th season as the head basketball coach at Van Buren High School in 2020-2021.  The northwest Ohio native grew up and attended high school in Ft. Recovery, Ohio,  He attended college and played basketball at the University of Findlay.  Upon his graduation from Findlay, Tyler spent two seasons as a graduate assistant coach in the Oiler program befor...

Nate Conley was hired and began his tenure as the head basketball coach at Manchester University just four days before his 1st practice with his new team.  Not an ideal way to begin his initial season as a head coach.  But his playing career at Defiance College under both Jon Miller and Kyle Brumett, as well as three seasons coaching under Brumett followed by six years alongside Mike DeW...

Kurt Goettemoeller graduated from Marion Local High School in 1992.  He had played for legendary head coach Jack Albers.  After four years of college and choosing a career in education, he became a teacher at Minster High School.  He served as an assistant at both Marion Local with Keith Westrick and at Minster with longtime coach Mike Lee.  In 2011, Coach Goettemoeller was hir...

Tom Polambo's first coaching job was to be the interim head women's basketball coach at his alma mater Virginia Wesleyan University.  He was hired a little more than 6 months after graduating with a degree in Communications and Journalism.  He would coach 3 more seasons at Virginia Wesleyan, where he also served as the softball coach and Sports Information Director.  In 1993, he too...

Mike DeWitt has been the head coach at his alma mater for 21 seasons, and has been a head coach in Division III basketball for 26 years in total.  His coaching career is a testament to establishing a vision for a program based on a solid foundation of core values and having the persistence to maintain those values while working toward success.  When he was hired at OWU (following 2 seaso...

I was so fortunate to coach Darnell Parker when I served as an assistant at Bluffton College in 1998-99.  After a stellar high school career at Findlay High School playing for former OHSAA Executive Director Jerry Snodgrass, Darnell played 4 years for Coach Guy Neal at Bluffton.  While working in the business world, he began a remarkably unique journey in coaching that saw him spend 9 ye...

My guest today is Kyle Brumett.  Kyle has been a head college coach for 14 seasons at three different institutions, Lakeland College, Defiance College and now Wabash College.  Prior to becoming a head coach, he was an assistant at DePauw University and the University of Southern Indiana, where he worked for current Auburn coach Bruce Pearl.  As a college student, Coach Brumett atten...

Jason Vermillion is a native of northwest Ohio and graduated from Cory-Rawson High School, which is just a stone's throw away from Arlington where Jason has now been the head basketball coach for the past 22 years.  With well in excess of 300 career wins, a trip to the state Final Four, and no signs of slowing down anytime soon, Coach Vermillion has built a terrific small school basketball program...

I have had the opportunity to coach against Frank Kill when he played for a state championship team while he was a student at Lincolnview High School in 1997 and to coach against Frank Kill as the head coach of a state championship team at Lima Central Catholic in 2014.  While neither was a particularly pleasant experience, I observed the same passion, energy and dedication to the team in both ins...

Caleb Williams is 28 years old and has already been a head college basketball coach for three seasons.  That in itself makes his story pretty uncommon.  It is the rest of the story that makes him truly unique.  Growing up as the son of a high school football coach, and experiencing the difficulty of seeing his father lose his coaching job in the town that he had called home as a kid, gave Caleb se...

I had the good fortune of watching Kevin Sensabaugh play as a high schooler, while at Spencerville High School and as college player at Ohio Northern University.  I have had the "pleasure" of competing against him as an assistant coach and as a head coach.  I have even gotten to experience watching my son play against his teams over the last three years (one more to go).  By far though, my greates...

Juli Fulks and I are both natives of western Hardin Co. Ohio.  We both attended tiny high schools in the northwest/central part of the state (she graduated with 39 students), and our paths crossed when she  attended a basketball camp at Ohio Northern University as a junior high student.  I happened to be her coach for the week, because I pulled off a hell of a trade on draft night!  Juli reminded...

On July 8, 2010, then 25 -year-old LeBron James (along with his newly formed production company) used ESPN to air a live television event to announce his intentions for playing the 2010-2011 season.  The ill-conceived idea was a major part of launching a new era of player empowerment.  However, there was nothing new about the bitter, gut-wrenching disappointment that had become all too f...