Scharer new Lake coach

6/10/2008

Jim Scharer spent the past few years watching basketball from the bleachers.

The former longtime assistant coach, who spent time at Genoa and Fremont Ross, will see plenty of action up close in the winter as the Lake boys head coach.

"It's a great opportunity because I think kids at Lake are in a position of looking for some stability and that's what I want to offer," said Scharer, shortly after accepting the coaching post. "Secondly, I want to offer the kids a chance to compete for a league championship."

Scharer fills the vacancy recently created after Jim Welling stepped down as the Flyers coach for one season to take over at Central Catholic. Welling, the former longtime Owens Community College men's coach, spent one season at Lake and the Flyers finished 4-17 overall. Welling posted a 550-127 career record at OCC from 1984 to 2006, which included leading the Express to national championships in 1992 and 1993.

This represents Scharer's first varsity head coaching post after serving as an assistant and junior varsity coach at Genoa and Fremont Ross. His last coaching experience took place at Genoa as a JV coach in 2001.

Scharer, who had taken time off from coaching to watch his son, Erick, play at Northwood, had recently accepted a JV position at Fremont Ross prior to being contacted about the Lake job. He removed himself from the Ross position to begin the process of arranging meetings and practices with the players at Lake.

A meeting with the returning Flyers players is expected to take place later this week.

"My ambition will be that I want to play an uptempo game until they show me that they can't," said Scharer, 47, who is a 1978 Clay graduate. He was a member of the Eagles team that won the Great Lakes League championship in 1977-78.