Hall of Fame coaches have lots to teach

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

They don’t call it the Hall of Fame Basketball Camp for nothing, with three of the area’s most successful coaches — all members of the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame — on hand to teach young athletes the finer points of a game the coaches still obviously love.

Van Wert Head Boys’ Basketball Coach Dave Froelich recruited former Wayne Trace basketball coach Al Welch, former Crestview boys’ basketball coach Ray Etzler and former Lincolnview boys’ basketball coach Larry Clark to teach Wednesday evening sessions on basketball fundamentals to area youngsters.

Actually, it wasn’t all that hard of a sell job for these coaches, who all admit coaching is still in their blood.

“That’s all we have is basketball,” said Clark, who coached the longest, at 34 years, mostly at Lincolnview and Perrysburg high schools, and has a career record of 442-236.

“Coaching never leaves you,” added Welch, who coached 33 years, all at Wayne Trace, with a total of 540 wins, 22 Green Meadows Conference titles, eight district titles, four regional titles, four state Final Four appearances and a state basketball championship in 1991.

Clark and Welch, in fact, dispute that they’ve ever left coaching, with both noting they currently still are active coaches,  just not to the extent they were while coaching in high school.

“Coaching then was all year round,” Welch said of his high school coaching days, noting that the only reason he retired was so he could travel more and find time for some other interests.

Clark spent nine of his high school coaching years building Lincolnview’s fledgling boys’ basketball program — from the ground up. In fact, both Welch and Clark were the first coaches for their consolidated school districts. Lincolnview was a consolidation of several eastern Van Wert County schools, including Middle Point, York, Ridge, Hoaglin-Jackson and Van-Del, while Wayne Trace combined Grover Hill, Payne and Haviland schools.

Clark arguably had the most challenges to overcome starting out: Lincolnview didn’t even have a gym the first year he coached. “All the games were away,” Clark said with a smile, although he admitted the immensity of the challenge was lost on him at the time. “I was so young I didn’t know what I was facing; I had what I wanted: a head coaching job.”

Highlights from all three coaches’ careers were the games they played against each other. “Playing these two guys was always one of my fondest memories,” Etzler said. “It was always a dogfight: big crowds, hostile environment, all this kind of stuff.”

All three said their teams were better after playing the other two, because of the high level of play.

All three coaches also said they loved the competition, although Welch said the rivalries ended with the game. “When the buzzer went off, it was over,” he noted.

All had different coaching styles as well, with Welch known for his fast-break teams and pressure defense. “We wanted to get up and down the court and put the pressure on,” he explained.

Etzler, who was 445-171 in his 28 years of coaching at Crestview, said his coaching style was slower, more deliberate and based mostly on the type of athletes he coached over the years, while Clark tailored his coaching style to the players who made up each team.

All coached some great athletes, with Etzler and Welch both coaching basketball-playing sons. Both Welch’s sons, Brian and Rob, were on his 1991 state championship team, with Rob scoring 30 points in the title game and being named tournament MVP.

One of Etzler’s sons, Doug, went on to play for Ohio State in the early 1990s and was replaced on the Knights by younger brother Andy.

All three loved to win, but all three also believed strongly in the importance of having teams that were fundamentally solid. That’s what they are teaching a new crop of basketball players who grew up in a time when less emphasis has been placed on fundamentals — something the coaches all feel is a detriment to the game.

But coaching, for all three Hall of Famers, really came down to just one thing: the interaction with the kids.

“We all had our coaching strategies, but the kids made the turning point,” Welch said.