Copley hires Julie Solis, Nathan Moran to coach basketball; Leigh Ann Bauer to lead softball

Copley-Fairlawn City Schools announced three coaching hires for the 2022-2023 school year on Monday night.

Copley Athletic Director Andy Jalwan said Julie Solis has been named the varsity girls basketball coach, Nathan Moran has been selected as the varsity boys basketball coach and Leigh Ann Bauer has been promoted to serve as the varsity softball coach.

“I am very excited about the new additions to our coaching staff," Jalwan said. "Not only have we brought on three highly qualified and successful coaches, but more importantly we have added three individuals of high character, integrity and dedication."

Solis and Moran fill positions that were previously occupied by former Copley boys and girls basketball coach Mark Dente.

Copley parted ways with Dente in May. Dente runs a national house-flipping business that is being sued by multiple private investors for not repaying millions of dollars in loans.

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Bauer takes over the Copley softball program that was previously led by John Virgin, who stepped down as coach following the 2022 season.

Solis comes to Copley with 21 years of experience as a high school girls basketball head coach, with stints at Cloverleaf (2001-2004), Solon (2004-2009), Twinsburg (2009-2018) and Gates Mills Gilmour Academy (2018-2022).

During her tenure as Twinsburg's coach, Solis won two Division I girls basketball state championships (2011 and 2012). Solis also guided Solon to a Division I state runner-up finish in 2006 and Twinsburg to a Division I state runner-up finsh in 2013.

"I am excited to be back in the area for starters," Solis said. "I missed this area a little bit and I am seeing some friendly faces amongst fellow coaches. I am excited to have the opportunity to coach a program that seems to have dedicated athletes and they have had some success recently. My assistant [Randy Thomas] and I, in just the little time that we have spent with the kids, are excited about the opportunity and the possibilities. ... They have a lot of multi-sport athletes on this team, which I really like."

Solis is set to inherit a girls basketball team that is returning a majority of its players from last season.

Solis went 58-43 at Gilmour, 189-50 at Twinsburg, 99-23 at Solon and 31-33 at Cloverleaf for an overall varsity record of 377-149. She has compiled 12 seasons of 18-plus victories, and has earned 17 coach of the year honors at the state, district, county and conference levels.

"More importantly than her success on the court, it became quickly evident to our interview committee, that coach Solis is a person of high character, is focused on building relationships, and will give our student-athletes a great experience," Jalwan said.

Solis competed in volleyball, basketball and softball at Chippewa High School before graduating in 1992. She played basketball for one year at College of Wooster and three years at Hiram College, earning Academic All-Conference honors for the Terriers. She graduated from Hiram in 1996, and was inducted into the Chippewa Hall of Fame in 2008, the Wayne County Hall of Fame in 2012 and the Hiram Hall of Fame in 2013. She has two children, Trevor (21) and Rylee (13).

Jalwan said that Moran "will be relocating from Tennessee to Akron this summer to begin his assignment as the next boys basketball coach at Copley High School."

Moran, 26, has spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach at Lee University in Tennessee. Before joining the staff at Lee University he coached at Missouri Western State University as a graduate assistant.

Prior to his college coaching experience, Moran played basketball at Lipscomb University from 2014-2019. He played in an NIT final, and totaled 1,140 points and 405 assists in his career at Lipscomb.

Moran scored 1,438 points as a high school player at Battle Ground Academy in Franklin, Tennessee. He graduated from BGA in 2014, and has a Bachelor's degree from Lipscomb and a Master's degree from Missouri Western State.

"My wife [Brooke Brenner Moran] went to Copley," Moran said. "Basically her whole family has gone to Copley. Her three younger siblings went to Copley. Her dad went to Copley. Her cousins went to Copley.

"... It is a pretty unique story, to be honest, just how the Lord works in crazy ways. I have been at Lee University the last two years. I have loved every single second of it. It is a Division II school that is about two and half hours from my hometown, which is Nashville, Tennessee. I have always said that if I was going to go coach high school basketball, there would only be two places that I would consider -- BGA where I was able to play and win a state championship and Copley. There are so many family roots with BGA, and Copley is the same way with my wife's family.

"When this opportunity came open, it wasn't like I was looking for anything. It kind of happened, and I pursued this and I am super excited to be around family. We also have a newborn [Roman]. He is two months old."

Nathan Moran and Brooke Brenner met while being student-athletes at Lipscomb.

Dente, a 1989 Copley High School graduate, was hired to coach the Copley boys basketball team prior to the 2010-2011 season and became the girls basketball head coach in January 2017.

Under Dente, the Copley girls basketball team won a Division II district title and made a regional semifinal appearance in 2022 and the Copley boys basketball team won a Division I district championship and advanced to a regional final in 2018.

"Copley in general is such a great community that success is embedded into it," Moran said. "These kids and these parents are passionate about winning, and more importantly they do it the right way. I want to be able to continue the tradition of winning and hopefully expand upon that.

"... I think we graduated four of the five starters from this past season's boys basketball team. We also lost several reserves, so it will be a new team. I am super excited to get to work with these guys and hopefully they are as hungry as I am."

Bauer is being promoted to lead Copley's softball team after serving the past four years as a varsity assistant coach and one year as the head junior varsity coach at Copley.

Copley's softball team made a Division II district final appearance in 2021 and a district semifinal appearance in 2022 with Bauer assisting Virgin.

Bauer played softball and basketball at Copley before graduating in 1997. She earned a degree from the University of Akron, previously oversaw the Copley Youth Softball program and has three children. Her daughter, Cassie, played on Copley's softball team before graduating in 2022.

"This is a great opportunity," Leigh Ann Bauer said. "This allows us to keep going down the path that we are headed. We are young, but we still have a lot of great ballplayers. The freshmen class from this past season is really talented, and the rising seniors are talented as well. ... This is exciting."

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Julie Solis, Nathan Moran, Leigh Ann Bauer hired as Copley coaches