JACKSON CENTER — Less than a month removed from leading his team to an improbable state semifinal berth, Jackson Center head girls basketball coach Scott Doseck has decided to step down.
Doseck spent two seasons as head coach of the Lady Tigers, but says he has coached in some capacity at the school for over 20 years. His first girls team finished 13-11, and this past season, the Lady Tigers got hot at the right time and rolled to a state semifinal berth. They went on to finish 21-8, giving Doseck a two-year record of 34-19.
“There were a lot of little things that played into it,” Doseck said Tuesday. “Nothing in particular, and it wasn’t just recently. It was time. It’s been a rough year for me. I lost my father-in-law, and I want to spend time with my grandkids. And to run the program the right way, you have to pay attention to the young kids, and it was just more time than I thought.”
Doseck said the only things he hasn’t coached in basketball at Jackson are junior high girls and varsity boys. The coach that preceded him, Makaine Huffer, was just starting out in the coaching field when she took over as the head coach. And she went to Doseck for help.
“Makaine was a young coach, and she asked me to help her out,” said Doseck. “She did a good job, and she saw that there was some talent in the program, and she asked me to make the switch (from boys basketball). I have to give Makaine a lot of credit for what we did this year. She saw the talent coming. Then when she moved up to Lima and began teaching in Van Wert, she just couldn’t do it anymore. I accepted the job because I didn’t want to see her hard work go for nothing.”
Doseck accomplished what many thought was all but impossible — taking the basketball team to state at a school where volleyball is first on the list for most girls. And he had to get the girls in a basketball mindset after they won the state title in volleyball.
“I knew we had talent, but I also knew that most of these girls were big on volleyball,” Doseck said. “And I understand that. But around midseason, when we beat New Knoxville, the girls started thinking they could compete with these teams. Then we beat Anna at home and that really got us going.”
The New Knoxville win came after a stretch that saw the Lady Tigers drop five of their previous seven games to fall to 8-5. But from that point, they lost only two more regular-season games, to powerhouses Versailles and Fort Loramie. And they stunned all of Shelby County with an upset of Loramie — the defending state champion — in the regional championship.
“We got hot at the right time,” Doseck said. “It wasn’t just one individual either. And we made a run that nobody thought we could make, including me.”
He said don’t be surprised to see him back coaching at some level in the JC system again.
“Come October, my wife will probably tell me to get out of the house,” he said.
