Sidelines: Central Catholic s Patterson, Wauseon s Burgei stepping down

4/10/2008
BLADE STAFF

Paul Patterson has resigned as boys basketball coach at Central Catholic after five seasons.

The decision was made from my own personal feelings and to give myself time and energy to attain other goals in my life, said Patterson, who had a 65-40 overall record with the Irish.

Central was 14-9 this season and reached the Division II district final before losing to eventual state runner-up Libbey. The Irish had upset the Cowboys 65-63 early in the season, but did not qualify for the four-team City League playoffs. Central had reached the district semifinals the previous two seasons.

Patterson, a Canton native, will continue teaching mathematics at Central, and will remain as an assistant football coach. He also plans to enroll in graduate school. Central was his first head coaching post after having served eight years as an assistant at three other Ohio high schools Chagrin Falls Kenston, Whitehall-Yearling and Louisville St. Thomas Aquinas.

Central Catholic is very grateful to Paul for his dedication for the past five years, said Rev. Dennis Hartigan, the school president. We are confident that he will continue to bring the same level of enthusiasm to his teaching and coaching, and we wish him well in his new endeavors.

Next winter you won t be able to tell the boys basketball coaches in the Northwest Ohio Athletic League without a scorecard.

Four NWOAL coaches have stepped down, with the most notable being longtime Wauseon coach Ken Burgei.

Burgei resigned after coaching the Indians for 25 years, posting a 322-242 record including a 15-6 record this last season.

Wauseon won or shared five NWOAL titles under Burgei, the most-recent in 2000, and was Division II state runner-up in 1994.

I ve certainly enjoyed coaching, Burgei said. I m not necessarily planning to get back into coaching I d like to have the time to do some things that coaching wouldn t me allow to do, such as travel and things like that.

Coaching consumes all of your time in the winter, and with the off-seasons these days there isn t as much time there either.

Swanton s Tim Zieroff resigned after four seasons as coach of the Bulldogs to focus on his work as athletic director. Swanton had a 31-55 record with Zieroff as coach, including a 13-9 mark this past season which was the school s first winning season since 2000-01.

Montpelier s T.J. Hammer has resigned after three seasons. Hammer had a 17-50 record with the Locomotives but had a 4-3 mark in tournament games. He led the Locos to sectional titles in his first two seasons as coach, the school s first since 1987.

And Liberty Center s Ryan Miller stepped down after three seasons. Miller, who has taken over as baseball coach, was 13-50 with the Tigers, including a 1-20 record last year.

Tory Strock was named the new football coach at Napoleon.

Strock posted a 28-42 record in seven seasons at Leipsic. He also was 6-4 as football coach at Lima Central Catholic in 2000.

A 1993 Liberty Center graduate who also played at Bluffton College, Strock was a quarterback when the Tigers reached the regional final in 1991 and the state semifinals in 1992.

Replacing Strock at Leipsic is Joe Kirkendall, who coached last season at Blanchard Valley Conference rival Arcadia . Kirkendall led the Redskins to a 6-4 record, Arcadia s first winning season in 15 years.

Filling Kirkendall s place with the Redskins is Arcadia alumnus Jacob Warrington. Warrington, who was an All-Ohio player for the Redskins and played at the University of Findlay, will be Arcadia s third coach in the last four seasons.

Griff Whalen of Southview will attend Stanford University in the fall, and will join the football team as a preferred walk-on.

Whalen, who played defensive back and shared duties at quarterback, will be attending Stanford on an academic scholarship.

Bob Olwin, whose high-powered passing attack helped Fairview earn state football playoff berths in three of the last four seasons, has resigned as coach of the Apaches to become head coach at Versailles.

Olwin posted a 104-33 record in 13 seasons at Fairview, winning seven Green Meadows Conference titles. Last season the Apaches finished 9-2 and played in the Division V state tournament. The offense was led by quarterback Ryan Radcliff, who threw for 11,038 career yards, third-best in Ohio history, and 139 career touchdowns, second-best in Ohio history.

Versailles is a tradition-rich program that plays in the rugged Midwest Athletic Conference, which has produced 18 state champions since 1989, the most recent in 2003.

Four St. Francis senior football players have announced their college decisions.

Sean McCarthy, a first-team All-City guard, and Chris Weiland, a first-team All-CL punter and second-team all-league running back, will attend the University of Toledo and join the team as preferred walk-ons.

All-City and all-district defensive end Kevin Kern will play at the University of Dayton, and Kris Adams will play at Ohio Dominican.

Lakota, which is in the process of a probable transition from the Suburban Lakes League to the Midland Athletic League beginning with the 2009-2010 school year, has named its next football coach.

Taking the post is Jim Kelly, who served as an assistant under former Lakota coach Shane Jacoby. Jacoby, who was 19-31 in five seasons, returned to the Mohawk school district in order to coach his son in junior high. Jacoby had a successful run as Mohawk s varsity coach before moving to Lakota, where he guided the Raiders to their first winning seasons (7-3 in 2006 and 6-4 in 2007) in more than a decade

Lakota athletic director Tom Tucker said that the next step in his school s intended move from the SLL will be a vote of the superintendents from the 11 MAL schools. The vote is expected this month, but Tucker said no date for the meeting has been announced. Lakota would need positive votes from nine schools to gain entry, according to the league bylaws.

The Raiders would become the MAL s 12th member, and would fill in the soon-to-be-vacated eighth league spot for football. Fostoria St. Wendelin has asked to be removed from the MAL s football competition but to be retained for all other sports.

Tucker said that request was approved by MAL officials in an April 2 league meeting. MAL members Bettsville, New Riegel and Old Fort do not have football programs.

St. Wendelin, which has been hindered by low participation numbers in football, will seek to continue its football program on an independent level. The Mohawks, who were 2-8 (1-6 MAL) last season, will remain in the MAL for football for the 2008 season.

The Toledo Area Athletic Conference will hold its ninth annual hall of fame ceremonies April 17 at Inverness Club.

This year s inductees are Chad Clemons of Danbury, David Fansler of Emmanuel Christian, Justin Kruse of Ottawa Hills and Mike Snyder of Toledo Christian.

Clemons was a track standout who won the Division III state title in the high jump in 2003 with a leap of 6 feet, 6 inches. He also finished fourth in the 110-meter hurdles (15.32) and fifth in the 300 hurdles (40.26).

Kruse won the Division III state golf title in 2000. He was a four-time state qualifier who won district medal honors in 1997, 99 and 2000.

Fansler earned six letters in basketball and golf. In basketball, he scored 1,134 career points, third on the school s all-time list.

Snyder was a longtime coach and athletic director. He led the girls basketball teams to TAAC titles in 1992, 93, 94 and 96, and he started the school s football program, serving as head coach from 1998-2005.

Social hour will begin at 6 p.m., with dinner served at 7 p.m. and the induction ceremony to follow.

Plaques for all four inductees will be on display with the previously inducted members of the TAAC hall of fame at the SeaGate Centre.