{"id":9565,"date":"2011-06-20T02:37:29","date_gmt":"2011-06-20T07:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=9565"},"modified":"2011-06-21T06:13:36","modified_gmt":"2011-06-21T11:13:36","slug":"hall-of-fame-basketball-coaches-still-have-lots-to-teach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2011\/06\/20\/hall-of-fame-basketball-coaches-still-have-lots-to-teach\/","title":{"rendered":"Hall of Fame coaches have lots to teach"},"content":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame coaches (from the left) Ray Etzler, Larry Clark and Al Welch chat prior to a basketball camp held at Van Wert High School. (Dave Mosier\/Van Wert independent)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They don\u2019t call it the Hall of Fame Basketball Camp for nothing, with three of the area\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Van Wert Head Boys\u2019 Basketball Coach Dave Froelich recruited former Wayne Trace basketball coach Al Welch, former Crestview boys\u2019 basketball coach Ray Etzler and former Lincolnview boys\u2019 basketball coach Larry Clark to teach Wednesday evening sessions on basketball fundamentals to area youngsters.<\/p>\n

Actually, it wasn\u2019t all that hard of a sell job for these coaches, who all admit coaching is still in their blood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s all we have is basketball,\u201d said Clark, who coached the longest, at 34 years, mostly at Lincolnview and Perrysburg high schools, and has a career record of 442-236.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoaching never leaves you,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Clark and Welch, in fact, dispute that they\u2019ve ever left coaching, with both noting they currently still are active coaches, \u00a0just not to the extent they were while coaching in high school.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoaching then was all year round,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

Clark spent nine of his high school coaching years building Lincolnview\u2019s fledgling boys\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Clark arguably had the most challenges to overcome starting out: Lincolnview didn\u2019t even have a gym the first year he coached. \u201cAll the games were away,\u201d Clark said with a smile, although he admitted the immensity of the challenge was lost on him at the time. \u201cI was so young I didn\u2019t know what I was facing; I had what I wanted: a head coaching job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlights from all three coaches\u2019 careers were the games they played against each other. \u201cPlaying these two guys was always one of my fondest memories,\u201d Etzler said. \u201cIt was always a dogfight: big crowds, hostile environment, all this kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

All three said their teams were better after playing the other two, because of the high level of play.<\/p>\n

All three coaches also said they loved the competition, although Welch said the rivalries ended with the game. \u201cWhen the buzzer went off, it was over,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

All had different coaching styles as well, with Welch known for his fast-break teams and pressure defense. \u201cWe wanted to get up and down the court and put the pressure on,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

All coached some great athletes, with Etzler and Welch both coaching basketball-playing sons. Both Welch\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

One of Etzler\u2019s sons, Doug, went on to play for Ohio State in the early 1990s and was replaced on the Knights by younger brother Andy.<\/p>\n

All three loved to win, but all three also believed strongly in the importance of having teams that were fundamentally solid. That\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

But coaching, for all three Hall of Famers, really came down to just one thing: the interaction with the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all had our coaching strategies, but the kids made the turning point,\u201d Welch said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DAVE MOSIER\/independent editor They don\u2019t call it the Hall of Fame Basketball Camp for nothing, with three of the area\u2019s 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. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 10:46:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}