Area schools haven’t looked far to fill some basketball coaching vacancies.
Fort Loramie announced on Wednesday athletic director Mitch Westerheide will take over as the school’s boys basketball coach. He replaces Corey Britton, who resigned last month after nine seasons at the helm.
Westerheide was hired in a special board meeting on Wednesday. He was hired as Fort Loramie’s athletic director in 2018 after having worked at Milton-Union, where he was the school’s boys basketball coach.
Westerheide graduated from Fort Loramie in 2009 and was a three-sport athlete. He played basketball at Capital University and was an honorable mention all-Ohio Athletic Conference selection as a senior.
“We were fortunate to have a number of quality candidates to chose from for this position,” Fort Loramie coach Kreg Hollenbacher said in a statement. “In the end, the committee felt that throughout the process, Mr. Westerheide was able to articulate a vision and detailed direction for the entire basketball program while showing a definite passion for the sport and an energy in working with young people.”
Jackson Center didn’t have to look far for its next coach, either. Aaron Klopfenstein was hired at a board meeting last month after being picked by his predecessor to take over.
Longtime coach Scott Elchert, who will remain as the school’s athletic director, retired as the school’s boys basketball head coach after 18 seasons in his second stint at the helm. He was also the program’s head coach for five years in the 90s.
Klopfenstein is a 2010 Jackson Center graduate and has been on the staff the last five years.
Russia looked outside its building for its next girls basketball coach, but didn’t look far. The school hired Russia resident Michael Bashore in a board meeting earlier this month. Among other stops, Bashore was a boys assistant at Versailles from 2008 to 2013 and then was Greenville’s boys head coach for four years.
Sad news out of Miami, Clark County
News of recent deaths of student athletes and a coach in nearby counties has been sad to hear.
The most recent of which was longtime football assistant coach Danny Dellapina, who spent most of his career at Springfield South and Springfield High Schools. I got to know him when I started as a volunteer reporter at a Springfield weekly paper while a high school student in 2007.
Dellapina graduated from Catholic Central and played defensive tackle at Capital. He looked like you’d expect a line coach to look, but while imposing physically, he was not imposing socially. I thought he was thoughtful and caring towards his students and players, and many tributes posted online this week have backed that up.
I saw him most recently when Springfield played in a Div. I state semifinal against Cincinnati Moeller at Sidney Memorial Stadium in November of 2021. I was happy to see he and several other longtime Springfield assistants celebrate with players after the squad earned its second consecutive state final berth. (They went on to earn a third last November.)
Two Springfield-area students died in a car crash on April 21. One was Taylor Haffner, a junior softball player at Springfield Shawnee.
The Braves were scheduled to play in the Fort Loramie Redskin Invitational the following day. Fort Loramie held a moment of silence with Parkway and Franklin-Monroe members during the event and put up a sign in the outfield of her number 12.
Shawnee returned to the diamond for the first time since the crash on Thursday and installed a sign in their outfield with Haffner’s number 12 and angel wings and a halo.
Tippecanoe senior Carson Robbins died after a short illness on April 14. He was a defensive back for the school’s football team, and his number 8 has been put up on signs along Main Street in Tipp City.
Billing has been the sports editor of the Sidney Daily News since 2017. He can be reached at [email protected].
