[alwayslearning]

What makes a good coach? To me a good coach gets the best out of his players, teaching them and helping the kids understand the game and listening to his assistants. If you are doing those three, winning will take care of itself. With that said, here are my top coaches in Central Ohio: Active Coaches
1. Jerry Francis-State title in his 2nd year with Pickerington Central
2. Bates Brothers-At Africentric & Walnut Ridge, they have the same coaching philosophy. Africentric has two straight final four appearances
3. Jim Miranda-In his 1st year at Eastmoor Academy, DII district champs, lost to Dunbar(state champs) in regionals. Also coached girls to 5 districts, 2 final fours and a state runner-up.
4. Nosserman(Sorry if I spelled it wrong)-At Olentangy Liberty, has coaching experience, 1st year their, DI district title.
5. Geno Caslin-Mifflin's coach has an up-tempo style that kids love to play for this man and I don't blame those kids.

[wooden]

Tom Petty, Bloom-Carroll, 541 career wins and counting.

[card4life]

Bob Miller - Thomas Worthington



and this was not nossman's first year at Liberty - but I agree that he is an outstanding Coach

[offpar11]

I think coach taylor at northland will develop into one of those top 5 type of guys soon. he is a good one.

[ringer]

Kevin Weakley

[Catch2232]

Tony Staib-Gahanna

[TriB1948]

Nossman has actually been at liberty for 4 years. Newarks has a great coach and weakly is good.

[alwayslearning]

I agree with Bloom-Carroll's Tom Petty, Tony Staib at Gahanna, Weakley, and Quakenbush from Newark. I apologize for my mistake with OL's coach. Refresh me with Bob Miller, What has he won? How long has he been coaching? And Coach Taylor? They want to get rid of him now at Northland. He underachieved big time but I do think that he will keep Northland on the map. National power, no-no-no

[offpar11]

coach taylor did alot with eastmoor and i realize he had plenty of talent this season, but i am not sure anyone was going to be considered successful there unless they played at the state. maybe it wont work, but i think it will and i think he did a wonderful job at eastmoor.

[alwayslearning]

Yes he did but not at first. He got better when he got some good volunteer help from Jerry Francis and Dennis Hopson in 06/07. Eastmoor Academy gets ok talent. In his first 5 years, they were ok but could of been a whole lot better. After that season in 06/07, got it going a little bit. Like I said he is a good coach but Taylor should of got to the regional final at least and in the DII championship game last year, blew that one too!

[newark1966]

Give Francis credit, he got the job done. Quackenbush at Newark is probably the best coach in the area and has also won a state title. Teams are consistantly better than the talent might make you guess. Not impressed with the guy at Worthington and how in the world can you even start to suggest that Northland's coach deserves mention. 4 D1's in the starting line-up and they loose to an average Reynoldsburg team. Liptrap is great and so is Noosman

[offpar11]

never coached a day of high school basketball, but from what i hear and read and see, coaching four d-1 kids during a coaching transition may not always be the easiest thing. time will tell there. in terms of deserving mention, i still bring up taylor's past and think he will do well in the future.

[Mitch Comstein]

In order for me to guess who the good coaches are in central Ohio I have to compare the records of the teams when their classes are in their freshman and jv years with their varsity years. If a school always has good freshman and jv teams year in and year out it does not automatically mean that the varsity coach is GREAT! To me it just means that the varsity coach is good and then let their tournament records tell whether they are great or not. A GREAT coach to me is a guy who gets average freshman and jv teams to be really good varsity teams every year.

Here are some team in central Ohio that year in and year out have really good freshman and jv teams. (I am OCC biased. I do not have much knowledge of City League or smaller conference's records)

Coffman, UA, Pick North, Reynoldsburg, Gahanna, Mt. Vernon, Liberty (lately)

Those teams should always have really good varsity teams. If not, well put two and two together.

Here are some teams that always seem to have above average varsity teams with average freshman and jv teams every year. These are the programs that I think have GREAT coaches and get the most out of their players.

Westerville South & Newark

[pacercat03]

That logic is a little flawed because many younger players move up right away if they are really talented, thus affecting younger levels. West South has had a few kids recently that played 3-4 years of varsity basketball. That hurts the Freshman and JV teams but helps the program and the coach and his record.

[Mitch Comstein]

Once in a while you will have a freshman move up to varsity, but not often. In the long run, the freshman and jv programs will show the talent of the players before they get to the varsity coach. My point is that too many coaches get credit for being good when they have great talent. Good coaches can make good/average players into great teams.

[bballdad]

Quackenbush at Newark as good as any. Runs a great program.
Nossaman at OL.
No offense but Francis at Pick Central had a lot of talent but I'm not sure I regard him as one of the top coaches. Need to maintain a certain level.

[alwayslearning]

Its good to see people joining in on this conversation. I am alwayslearning and Quack at newark could ball a little bit too in his day! He is a good coach so OCC bias, learn about the city and tell some of these occ teams to play the city league's best. Liberty beat WR(Walnut Ridge) this year in OT, but if they played again, WR would get them. Brookhaven and Eastmoor won the DII district brackets this year. Mifflin won the year before. And I would bet you two city teams will win it next year. Northland slipped big time but been dominating for the past six years and with its new coach, they will still be known around central ohio. I do like the comment about JV's and freshman teams doing well and that teams have a program. Back to the city, WR's jv team went undefeated and both jv and varsity smashed pick north in the regular season, northlands jv went 17-2, Brookhaven- Africentric jv's teams were good and Eastmoor's jv went 16-4. The city has good programs and don't have all the suburb perks like auxilery gyms, big weight rooms and they have to share money with all the city schools, suburbs don't. There are good coaches in central ohio, I just wanted to know what people think.

[underdog]

No mention of Ed Calo?

[bigtimecharlie]

Francis? "alot of talent?" Started 3 sophomores, had an unproven point guard and Levert developed from a sub MAC player to MICHIGAN because of Francis. Next...Quack does a nice job, maybe the best as far as tireless recruiter and running a program that fits his players. Calo...another good one...year after year. Others? Corbett at Grandview...few match the longevity and success at a very "non basketball" community. You mentioned Petty, Miller and Liptrap. Petty...wins regular season games like a champ because he's ok and plays in the MSL. Other than that, early exits in the tournament and no state titles. Miller...Nice guy, been there forever...no titles. Liptrap...Simply stayed in one place forever. No championships and has had players. Scouts hard but not a good game coach because of being egative. Kids quit and move out yearly. WHo's up? BTC

[alwayslearning]

Who is Ed Calo? I am alwayslearning so tell me, please. Bigtimecharlie thanks for the input. Don't recall Worthington, Bloom-Carroll, Grandview, and Pick North doing anything, but the long gevity does mean a lot but eventually you have to win something.