In addition to filling the void left by senior Jarron Cumberland and fellow seniors Alex Miller, Cameron Stewart and Nick Morris, the Wilmington High School boys basketball program will need to replace a coach.
Nick Molz, the varsity assistant to head coach Michael Noszka, was hired Tuesday night to be the varsity boys basketball coach at Kings High School.
“I’m happy for him,” said Noszka. “He deserves it.”
Noszka talked during the season about Molz being a hot candidate for a head coaching position during this off-season and it turned out to be true.
“I didn’t really have any goals; I just wanted to find the right fit,” Molz said following the Kings’ board meeting.
Molz had several schools interested in his services but finally landed in Warren County for his first heading coaching gig. He said he’s been looking the past couple seasons, but was “a little more selective” this season where he sent his resume.
“I love teaching at Wilmington,” he said. “I love coaching at Wilmington. I’ve been getting texts from kids congratulating me. That’s the hard part of all this. It speaks to the type of community Wilmington is. It speaks a lot to the relationships that have been built here.”
Molz, 27, has worked with both head coaches who led their teams to the Div. I Southwest Regional basketball championship this season — Noszka at WHS and Brook Cupps at Centerville.
MORE COACHING NEWS …
Pending board approval, Zach Williams will be the next varsity coach of the WHS girls basketball program.
Williams has coached with the football and boys basketball programs at WHS, but has not coached the past several years.
If hired, he would take over for Mark Short, who resigned following the 2015-16 season.
PIECES BEGIN TO MOVE …
Clinton-Massie was first then East Clinton. Wilmington should be making the decision next week.
The county schools’ migration to the Southern Buckeye Athletic & Academic Conference began Monday night when the Clinton-Massie board of education approved the district’s membership to the SBAAC beginning in the fall of 2017.
East Clinton’s board of education met Tuesday night. Athletic director Jim Marsh didn’t anticipate any issues with the board approving the move but it had not done so at presstime.
Wilmington’s next board meeting is scheduled for Monday.
Clinton-Massie and, pending approval, East Clinton have both accepted dual membership for their respective districts in the SBAAC and the SCOL.
Remember, there are five schools leaving the SCOL with CM, EC and WHS remaining. So officially speaking the SCOL will exist even though five schools have deemed it unworthy in its present state.
The SCOL will be used as a league for sports that don’t have league affiliations elsewhere. Among the possibilities — but not limited to these sports — would be girls golf, lacrosse, bowling and swimming.
None of those sports are official championship sports of the SBAAC at this time, though some schools field teams in these sports.
So the SCOL will be used to allow athletes in these sports — or any other without league affiliation — to compete for a league championship.
And membership to the SCOL beginning with the 2017-18 school year is not restricted to SBAAC schools, nor just the aforementioned sports.
“Sometimes there is pressure on a conference to add sports or schools feel pressure to add a sport because their conference has it,” said Marsh. “I’m confident that it will work. This doesn’t have to be a mega-conference. If it’s four or five (teams), then we’ve made it better for the kids … we’ve bettered the opportunity for our student-athletes, ultimately that’s the goal.”
Once upon a time, when Wilmington was just starting its girls golf program, the Lady Hurricane played in the Southwest Ohio Girls Golf League. So this is not a new venture.
“It’s all just brainstorming right now,” Marsh said. “We’re hoping people will seek us out, once we get our house in order.”
