Elmwood, Lake fill both basketball positions

7/1/2008

Even though school is closed, and no events will take place until August, high school athletic directors don't have much of a summer vacation.

Just ask Elmwood athletic director Terry Rothenbuhler, whose summer has been further cluttered by the search for new boys and girls basketball coaches.

"The summertime actually is a big springboard to getting everything ready for the fall," he said. "But we were fortunate that we were able to find a couple of quality coaches on such short notice."

Doug Reynolds, who spent eight years as the Royals' boys coach, resigned from that position earlier this month, and Joe Kirkendall, who led the Elmwood girls to the Suburban Lakes League title in his only season there, resigned to become football coach at Leipsic.

Rothenbuhler said the boys position will be filled by Ty Traxler, who spent the past eight seasons as Elmwood's junior varsity coach.

"Basically Ty has been on our radar ever since this position was opened," Rothenbuhler said. "I thought he and Doug worked well together, and I knew Ty was looking for a full-time head coaching position."

The Royals' next girls basketball coach will be Dennis Martin, who spent the last two season as a boys varsity assistant at Rossford. He also has coaching experience at Van Buren and Fostoria St. Wendelin.

Lake athletic director Dave Shaffer also has been busy this summer, hiring new coaches for both basketball programs as well.

Jim Scharer will become the program's third coach in as many years, replacing Jim Welling, who moved to Central Catholic after one season.

This will be the first head coaching position for Scharer, who has been both a varsity

assistant and junior varsity coach at both Genoa and Fremont Ross. Scharer has been out of coaching since 2001 so he could watch his son, Erick, play at Northwood.

On the girls side Denny Meyer also will be the Flyers' third coach in as many seasons. Meyer will take over for Dick Fox, who served in an interim capacity last season following the resignation of Saundra Young.

Meyer was the varsity assistant for the boys team at Oak Harbor last year after filling the same role in the Rockets' girls program the previous two seasons.

In other coaching news, Anthony Wayne selected Nate Gaubatz to fill its boys basketball coaching vacancy. Gaubatz, who spent the last two years serving as an assistant coach at the College of Wooster, also has served as an assistant at Wooster and Cloverleaf high schools.

This is the first head coaching job for the 29-year-old Gaubatz, who replaces Scott Riley.

"It's a very exciting opportunity to come to a league that is very competitive," Gaubatz said. "I'm excited to get moving with this."

And Napoleon has hired Tim Badenhop as its boys basketball coach. Badenhop, an alumnus who played on the Wildcats' 1981 Class AA state title team, has served as the program's junior varsity coach for the past five seasons.

Blade sports writer Donald Emmons contributed to this report.

Contact John Wagner at:

jwagner@theblade.com

or 419-724-6481.