WESTFIELD TWP. — Cloverleaf athletic director Craig Walkup got his man.
Buckeye assistant, Wadsworth resident and Highland graduate Jack Banks has been approved as the new boys basketball coach at Cloverleaf, emerging from a field of approximately 15 candidates.
The 50-year-old replaces Marty Ryan, who resigned after compiling a 14-78 record over four seasons.
“I wasn’t planning on leaving Buckeye at all,” Banks said. “I could have been very happy and stayed there the next 10 years. I think they can win 15-16 games under Tom (Harrington) for the next 10 years. They can be that good.
“(Walkup) called me up and said, ‘Hey, let’s talk Cloverleaf basketball.’ He told me basically what’s wrong with them, and I’ve coached against them over the course of the last five years. Once Walkup got me there, he asked, ‘What would it take for you to stay?”’
That involved bringing along longtime coaching buddies Tim Flath and Dale Tittle as assistants. Former Highland boys coach Michael Murphy also will volunteer.
Banks is a relative newcomer to the coaching scene but is versatile, having coached at essentially every grade level in the Wadsworth girls youth system. Including his daughters, McKenna and Peyton, Banks has coached six players who went on to be members of state championship teams in high school.
Winning has followed Banks wherever his coaching travels have taken him. He latched on as Murphy’s lead assistant for the Highland boys from 2012-15 and joined Harrington at Buckeye last season. Banks’ record as a boys varsity assistant is 64-31.
“I’ve always wanted to be a head coach,” said Banks, who averaged a team-leading 15.3 points while leading Highland to its first winning season in 12 years as a senior in 1984-85. “To be a coach, you have to always have aspirations, and you always want to see how you can do it yourself.”
Banks, who works as a construction manager in Medina, already has re-worked his schedule so he only has to miss two Wadsworth girls games in the upcoming season. He and Murphy also pulled this off when they were at Highland.
“My daughters probably play better without me always being around,” he joked.
The challenge facing Banks at Cloverleaf is well-documented.
The Colts have had 28 straight losing seasons, burning through 11 coaches and sporting a 119-478 record (.199). Last winter, they were 2-21 and allowed 72.2 points per game — the second-highest total in school history (78.3, 1995-96).
Starters Tyler Kapeluck (8.2 ppg), Travis Hissom (4.0) and Ryan Gutschow (3.5) are slated to return, while the eighth-grade class had a winning record last season.
“I love the game and I love the environment,” said Banks, who added he will be heavily involved with the youth program and will have a defense-first philosophy. “Coaching for me doesn’t matter if it’s a high school level or a lower level because I have a lot of passion in my belly.
“This job is going to take time. You know it and I know it, but based on what I’ve seen at the youth level and junior high level, that’s one of the reasons I took the job.”
Another reason was the Colts’ move to the Portage Trail Conference Metro Division this school year, making a potential building process more sustainable than if they had remained in the Suburban League, where they had a 42-210 record.
“The way we sit in the league, there’s some winnable games, but the biggest thing now is it‘s not about wins and losses,” Banks said. “It’s about changing the culture, changing the climate, addressing the youth (level). In my meeting with parents (Monday), I said, ‘It’s all on me. I’m going to be very, very hands on.’
“The other thing is how many coaching jobs are there in the state of Ohio? I got one of them.”