Aces of Trades: Inspired by his father and others, Lucas Worrell was hooked on basketball

NEW CONCORD – For him, basketball is a family thing.

“I always dreamed,” recalled Lucas Worrell, “of playing college basketball for my father at Illinois College. Then when I was in high school, I realized it was going to be very hard for me to play because college basketball at every level is very competitive and the players are very talented.”

Today, Worrell is the assistant men’s basketball coach at Muskingum University.

“My primary responsibilities,” he explained, “include recruiting, implementing practice and game plans, on-court coaching, scouting, helping our players with academics, skill development, and running our strength and conditioning program. I also help teach one PE course each year.

“I always dreamed of coaching college basketball,” he added, “since I was in about seventh grade from seeing the positive impact and strong relationships my father (Mike Worrell) had on the lives of 18-22 year olds, as well as seeing so many of my father’s formers players having successful college coaching careers. Seven of them became head college coaches.”

Mike Worrell, by the way, after 22 years at Illinois College, more recently spent two years as head coach of the Bethany College men’s basketball team.

Lucas Worrell was born in Akron while his dad was an assistant coach at the College of Wooster. The family soon moved to Jacksonville, Illinois because his dad became the head men’s basketball coach at Illinois College. Worrell graduated from Jacksonville High School in 2013, from Illinois College with a psychology degree in 2017, then Ashland University in 2021 with an MBA in business analytics.

“The earliest memory I have of basketball,” he said, “was when I was about 4 or 5 years old and heaved a youth basketball over my shoulder and swished in the old Memorial Gym at Illinois College. I was hooked.

“Watching all of my father’s team’s play every single home game,” Worrell continued, “being on the bus going to road games, being in the locker room before road games, sitting on the bench as a kid being the water boy, being at many practices – and most of all, just being around all the high character college players who you look up to as a young kid. All of these amplified my love for the game.”

Worrell was an assistant men’s basketball coach at Illinois College for the 2017-2018 season, then it was off to MacMurray College as an assistant for the 2018-2019 season, then Ashland University, then Bethany College, then Muskingum University in the summer of 2022.

“The main reason I came to Muskingum,” Worrell said, “is because I’ve always valued working for head coaches (Mike Worrell, Todd Creal, John Ellenwood) who are good coaches, but more importantly better people who have high character and are very family oriented. Coach Nathan Wahle checked all those boxes.”

Nathan Wahle is head men’s basketball coach at Muskingum.

“Lucas has an incredible basketball IQ,” assessed Wahle. “He sees the game at an advanced level, which helps our program get creative with the variety of schemes we use when we prepare for an opponent. He’s also been instrumental in our recruiting efforts. He has a good eye for identifying prospects that fit with our basketball program and the university. I feel fortunate to have Lucas on staff.”

“I love basketball,” Worrell responded. “I’m very grateful to get the coach at the college level, which is very intense and competitive and constantly a fun challenge each season. However, the main reason I coach is the strong relationships you get the opportunity to develop with the players. I never want to get so tunnel-visioned on only winning that I lose sight of the reason I got into coaching – to develop strong and life-lasting relationships with the players beyond their playing careers.”

For more information about Muskingum University, log on www.muskingum.edu.

Aces of Trades is a weekly series focusing on people and their jobs – whether they’re unusual jobs, fun jobs or people who take ordinary jobs and make them extraordinary. If you have a suggestion for a future profile, let us know at trnews@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com.

This article originally appeared on Zanesville Times Recorder: Muskingum University assistant coach learned love of basketball early