London Boys Basketball

[The Dock]

Small Catholic high schools (with the exception of Purcell Marian in Cincinnati) have become dead zones for coaching mobility in high school basketball. One almost always has to take some new job in an "intermediary" role for a year or two to put some additional experience (coaching and life) on the resume to get more attention. With small enrollments that keep pointing to decline, not growth let alone stability, and the hand that tuition payment plays in the attitude of parents, a coach is wise to get out on a strong note. While SCC is a great community with some interesting athletic tradition, the fact of the matter is the school is on the back-end of a "waning" period in their athletic talent. Look no further than their football. When you're a young coach that approaches basketball as a "student of the game", has made it your life prerogative to be in coaching (and teaching) for all the right reasons and to instruct kids, and wants to keep taking on bigger/better opportunities for yourself, you're not going to hang around longer than you have to at a school you have little connection to in a town you didn't grow up in.

Rightly or wrongly, this is a by-product of the HS basketball scene of assessing coaches on the basis of "when they have talent" versus "when the cupboard is bare", as if this is the NBA.

 

[RollingTrain]

I’m pretty sure he left Central because he wanted to try the college out and it was evident that he helped Wittenberg finish with their best record in years and a sweet 16 appearance.

Probably left because of budget cuts to all departments at Wittenberg and he was a volunteer. I’d assume he’s getting paid a lot more at London than what he made at Central.

They took the agenda for the meeting down, but it listed the coaching salaries of everyone in the building. It was too much for the HC position. My guess is it's made up for in teacher salary, but no, neither is an attractive number for all the work it entails.

 

[bobcat44]

Stability has gone out the door just about everywhere.

There aren't too many younger coaches that survive more than 3-4 years at the same spot. Either you win and advance to the next job (or take a break until you get your next job), or you don't win enough and you get fired.

This is a great yet unfortunate point. Too many schools have unrealistic expectations which leads to a lot of turnover.

 

[bobcat44]

lol, isn't he under 30? He's probably figuring out what he wants to do.

You clearly weren't asking this in good faith when you posed this question to me months ago.



I gave you an answer then. NWWarrior explained it above, and you still keep pushing this weird 'money' angle. You didn't get to see a recruiting impact at Witt because he's gone, and Croci has obviously gotten really talented kids, but it's not like this guy just got to pick to go to Wittenberg. Croci is trying to turn the program back into the prestigious one it once was, and he knows he needs really talented coaches to do it.

I truly have no idea what a volunteer assistant makes in college but do know what high school coaches make as it’s readily available to the public. My point was coaches do not make enough money for the time they put in hence not a part time job to have if you are in it for the money. If you want to believe the move was made in pursuit of coaching college that is up to you. IMO it was to avoid a few rebuilding years which again is fine. We are all free to make any career decision we want. I would have a different viewpoint had he been in the college ranks more than one season.

 

[nwwarrior09]

This is a great yet unfortunate point. Too many schools have unrealistic expectations which leads to a lot of turnover.

I think it's a very interesting point to keep tabs of with this job. As has been said before, London doesn't necessarily have great basketball tradition but they have a ton of athletes in the building.

Three of the other five schools in their division of their league have had the same coach for 15+ years. Bellefontaine's "new" coach that's returning to the boy's sidelines has been in the building for close to 15 years. Jonathan Alder is the fifth school, and they have a ton of advantages over everybody else.

This could be a good long-term job, but it requires somebody to stay (and be kept) long-term to fulfill that potential. Playing coach roulette every 3-4 years is going to have London as a frequent cellar dweller in the CBC Kenton Trail Division.

 

[Fan4life!]

Regardless, good for him and good for them! Best of luck to all teams this year knowing there is an unknown of what may be next season.

 

[LetsGoBig]

You can say what you want about him leaving Catholic Central, but he left for one reason and one reason only they were about to be really bad. He coached that group of good athletes at Central since they were sophomores. He got them to the regional two straight years largely because their sectional and district match ups were cake walks.

I have heard he is a great guy, but lets see him build something instead of coaching talent and leaving.

 

[DonJuanDeMarco]

You can say what you want about him leaving Catholic Central, but he left for one reason and one reason only they were about to be really bad. He coached that group of good athletes at Central since they were sophomores. He got them to the regional two straight years largely because their sectional and district match ups were cake walks.

I have heard he is a great guy, but lets see him build something instead of coaching talent and leaving.

Crazy that he told you why he left and then didn't care that his friend would post it on a message board. He must really trust you.

 

[1 time]

It’ll be interesting to see if he leaves after this talented senior class graduates as he did at Central

Maybe he’ll leave for “family reasons “ next time ??. Some of These guys never stick around and build a Program. They’re the LeBron James of High school sports !

 

[The Dock]

You can say what you want about him leaving Catholic Central, but he left for one reason and one reason only they were about to be really bad. He coached that group of good athletes at Central since they were sophomores. He got them to the regional two straight years largely because their sectional and district match ups were cake walks.

I have heard he is a great guy, but lets see him build something instead of coaching talent and leaving.

I saw Cody Sarensen create a basketball camp specifically designed for young adults with developmental disabilities when he was, like, 20 and it had incredible participation. That alone suggests to me he's proven in building "something", and is likely more than anything you've built or will build with regards to basketball organization in your life.

 

[bobcat44]

Crazy that he told you why he left and then didn't care that his friend would post it on a message board. He must really trust you.

My kids believe in Santa Claus but us grown ups know better... not saying he left cause central was going to be terrible just a rebuild for a couple years. They competed well this season especially for how young they were and made another sectional final. Say what you will but if his dream like mentioned in the article was to coach in college no way he gives up on that after one season. He didn’t want to rebuild. You must be a relative

 

[bobcat44]

I saw Cody Sarensen create a basketball camp specifically designed for young adults with developmental disabilities when he was, like, 20 and it had incredible participation. That alone suggests to me he's proven in building "something", and is likely more than anything you've built or will build with regards to basketball organization in your life.

Hopefully we get to see what he can do with a basketball program as stability is always better for the coach and program.

 

[Fan4life!]

My kids believe in Santa Claus but us grown ups know better... not saying he left cause central was going to be terrible just a rebuild for a couple years. They competed well this season especially for how young they were and made another sectional final. Say what you will but if his dream like mentioned in the article was to coach in college no way he gives up on that after one season. He didn’t want to rebuild. You must be a relative

Yeah, I’m pretty sure his ambition was see what the college world was like. I’m not sure he wanted to coach in college the rest of his life, it was more just to see if he would want to. Sometimes when you have an opportunity, you can’t pass it up.

I also heard Wittenberg’s main assistant left? Again, did Sarensen leave because of the instability of the funds at Wittenberg? I know all faculty and staff are taking some pay-cuts. Could’ve left because he wasn’t going to get paid next year? Who knows, but who cares what he did. He not even from the area, didn’t play around here or anything. He came this way embracing the community.

Yeah, he’ll have a talented group this year, but there’s also a reason why the other coach left, leaving a solid group behind? Which means, there’s a reason they brought Sarensen in. He obviously brings something valuable to the program that London wanted.

 

[bobcat44]

You seem to be very passionate about Sarensen’s choices. I don’t know how you know his ambitions unless you personally know him. All I am saying, he would have stuck with Springfield Catholic if he had any passions of being a great coach and creating a winning mentality. They had the talent, just needed a few years to continue develop. He didn’t want to stick around for the developing stages. The money at Wittenberg should have anything to do with it, as I am sure he is not making much. Coaching has nothing to do with money if you are in it for the right reasons. A volunteer assistant job is as easy as they come. He is just moving around to coach talent. Hopefully he proves everyone wrong and stays when the hard times get tough like every good coach does. Coaches shouldn’t coach to get recognition, which is what he seems to be chasing.

 

[The Dock]

All I am saying, he would have stuck with Springfield Catholic if he had any passions of being a great coach and creating a winning mentality.

I'm sorry, but this is disingenuous. As I said earlier, virtually all of the bottom-half enrollment Catholic schools in Ohio have become long term time-sinks when it comes to coaching boys basketball. There's far less teaching positions and professional opportunities with these schools, and the ones that do exist pay poorly all-the-while not being in STRS. So unless a school strikes gold and gets someone who just loves Catholic education enough to devote much of their life to a school and the system and also happens to be worthy of coaching varsity basketball, these places either hire someone in the public system or a "lay" coach (someone who coaches but doesn't teach.) A lay coach may have less "pulling" motivations than someone who works in public education, but it all depends on that person's long term aspirations and what's going on in their life. A public school employee however will invariably want their coaching career to be directly aligned with their district of employment sooner rather than later. Going to two different schools as a teacher/specialist by day and a basketball coach by night is a huge expanse of one's time when coaching at the second school is doing very little to advance your career or experience new horizons. It serves no reason to keep coaching at a specific school when it's incongruent with your own future professional ambitions in the teaching and coaching realms, just to appease some rando's on Yappi.

This thread ends up being meaningless if the constant shift of focus is reverting back to why a coach left a low-profile school several years ago. I mean, seriously, SCC is a great school but it is not the alpha and omega of high school basketball in any context. Needlessly bemoaning and calling into question a good coach's career trajectory reeks of sour grapes, and it does nothing to flatter the image of the school he moved on from whatsoever.

 

[bobcat44]

.

I'm sorry, but this is disingenuous. As I said earlier, virtually all of the bottom-half enrollment Catholic schools in Ohio have become long term time-sinks when it comes to coaching boys basketball. There's far less teaching positions and professional opportunities with these schools, and the ones that do exist pay poorly all-the-while not being in STRS. So unless a school strikes gold and gets someone who just loves Catholic education enough to devote much of their life to a school and the system and also happens to be worthy of coaching varsity basketball, these places either hire someone in the public system or a "lay" coach (someone who coaches but doesn't teach.) A lay coach may have less "pulling" motivations than someone who works in public education, but it all depends on that person's long term aspirations and what's going on in their life. A public school employee however will invariably want their coaching career to be directly aligned with their district of employment sooner rather than later. Going to two different schools as a teacher/specialist by day and a basketball coach by night is a huge expanse of one's time when coaching at the second school is doing very little to advance your career or experience new horizons. It serves no reason to keep coaching at a specific school when it's incongruent with your own future professional ambitions in the teaching and coaching realms, just to appease some rando's on Yappi.

This thread ends up being meaningless if the constant shift of focus is reverting back to why a coach left a low-profile school several years ago. I mean, seriously, SCC is a great school but it is not the alpha and omega of high school basketball in any context. Needlessly bemoaning and calling into question a good coach's career trajectory reeks of sour grapes, and it does nothing to flatter the image of the school he moved on from whatsoever.

This thread is meaningless. no one said he had to stay forever doc...just have some humility about the situation. He leaves saying I’m chasing my dream to coach in college but everyone at Springfield Catholic knew it was due to the youth experience they were about to take on. Hopefully he stays at London or whatever school he wants for an extended period of time. ✌?

 

[DonJuanDeMarco]

My kids believe in Santa Claus but us grown ups know better... not saying he left cause central was going to be terrible just a rebuild for a couple years. They competed well this season especially for how young they were and made another sectional final. Say what you will but if his dream like mentioned in the article was to coach in college no way he gives up on that after one season. He didn’t want to rebuild. You must be a relative

That's not it. I'm saying that other posters, and you, are completely certain about why he left. I'm just surprised that he would tell so many people the exact reason he left Catholic Central. But face it, none of us know, including you. It's weird to me that you guys want to assume something sinister, like he came to CCHS with the intention of using Sabien Doolittle and Trey Dunn to further his career. Central has had better players than them in the last 20 years and won a total of 0 league and district titles with them.

Maybe he wanted to see if he liked coaching in college. Maybe he liked coaching in college but didn't like time away from his family. Who knows?

 

[xscoutsoc]

.

This thread is meaningless. no one said he had to stay forever doc...just have some humility about the situation. He leaves saying I’m chasing my dream to coach in college but everyone at Springfield Catholic knew it was due to the youth experience they were about to take on. Hopefully he stays at London or whatever school he wants for an extended period of time. ✌?

Calm down.

 

[ghsknightsfan]

Sarensen won with talent at SCC, he met expectations and did it consistently. he jumped to the college level because it’s obviously a better opportunity for him. he could’ve left Wittenberg because it was too demanding, he didn’t like it, or he liked the opportunity at London. this was a good hire for London, Sarensen is a man you want leading your young man on and off the court

-a Greenon fan who has seen him coach and followed SCC during tournament runs

 

[1 time]

Sarensen won with talent at SCC, he met expectations and did it consistently. he jumped to the college level because it’s obviously a better opportunity for him. he could’ve left Wittenberg because it was too demanding, he didn’t like it, or he liked the opportunity at London. this was a good hire for London, Sarensen is a man you want leading your young man on and off the court

-a Greenon fan who has seen him coach and followed SCC during tournament runs

So you really don’t know him ? Just watched him win a few games ? Hmmm

 

[ghsknightsfan]

So you really don’t know him ? Just watched him win a few games ? Hmmm

nope, i don’t know him. but he has earned the respect of every other school in the OHC, and if you’ve been ever seen him coach then you’d believe me. i know a couple guys from SCC, had nothing but good things to say

 

[1 time]

Great. Wish him and the school the very best ?

 

[strickly_layups]

Good luck to him regardless, Coaches are not lining up for jobs like 20 years ago. Anyone who still has interest in coaching the way things are now then kudos to them!

 

[Fan4life!]

Let’s be honest.

After finishing the Last Dance documentary, there’s no question how hard it is to coach and manage talented players. We know it’s not as easy as it looks. Probably harder than coaching average players. However, he’s proven that he can do it and he may do it again, we’ll see!

 

[1 time]

Good luck to him regardless, Coaches are not lining up for jobs like 20 years ago. Anyone who still has interest in coaching the way things are now then kudos to them!

Exactly. The pool for hiring coaches today have shrunk considerably. It’s kinda of a crap shoot for most getting hired today. Good luck to all who are taking on that task.

 

[RollingTrain]

Huge blow to London as Trey Woodyard has transferred to ISA Academy.

 

[bobcat44]

Huge blow to London as Trey Woodyard has transferred to ISA Academy.

That’s unfortunate.... a player of that caliber leaving could set a program back a couple years. Hopefully this does not happen here

 

[Snowman8]

Ouch. A generational player who undoubtedly helped get Cameron to London too. Hope they don’t regress back to where they were several years ago.

 

[bobcat44]

Ouch. A generational player who undoubtedly helped get Cameron to London too. Hope they don’t regress back to where they were several years ago.

Wonder if he will go back to his original school? If so that is devastating for a team who thought they’d compete for conference and district titles

 

[nwwarrior09]

If Woodyard is leaving, then I'd have to imagine the kids that have transferred in over the last couple years are going to be leaving as well.

With Woodyard's size and skill level London's fortunate that he stayed for three years. Most would have left for tougher competition elsewhere when entering high school. The kid and his family showed a level of commitment and loyalty to their home school and community that's rare these days.