Sheldon family finds ways to watch Jacy at Ohio State and Ajay at Ohio University

With a daughter and son on course to play high school sports, Duane Sheldon knew he would need to make a change to watch his kids compete on a regular basis.

After seven seasons as men’s basketball coach at Baldwin Wallace, Sheldon was named athletic director at Dublin Coffman in June 2015.

For his children, Jacy and Ajay, it meant a move from northeast Ohio to central Ohio and leaving friends behind. Apprehensive at first about relocating, they became two of the greatest basketball players in Coffman history.

‘Still figuring it out’: What’s it like to be a parent while coaching a high school team?

“I didn’t think too much of it until Jacy was going to be a freshman in high school,” Duane said. “Up to that point in northeast Ohio, the girls basketball games and our college league, the Ohio Athletic (Conference), played at the same time. When you start doing the math of my coaching schedule and her games happening at the same time for the next four years, we knew it was time for a change.

“We loved it there. It was tough leaving there. We had a lot of close friends and a lot of our family was still up that way, but it turned out to be a great decision.”

The move allowed Duane and his wife, Laura, to better follow their children’s athletic careers, with both going on to play Division I college basketball. Jacy is now a senior guard at Ohio State, and Ajay is a freshman guard at Ohio University.

Laura, a physical education and health teacher at Coffman, ran sprints and competed in the long jump and triple jump at Baldwin Wallace. Duane also previously coached Heidelberg for six seasons and high school basketball for five seasons at Middleburg Heights Midpark, which is now Berea-Midpark.

They also have a daughter, Emmy, who has Down syndrome and is in eighth grade at Grizzell Middle School in Dublin.

Although Jacy has been injured for much of this season, the Sheldons are still attending Buckeyes home games. They've also been driving down to Athens to watch Ajay.

“We have attended all the Ohio State home games since Jacy’s injury,” Duane said. “The players would be mad at us if we didn’t. Emmy gives them handshakes and high fives during pregame warmups. (It’s) kind of an expectation.

"We have been to all of Ajay’s home games this season. We do not attend all away games for Jacy and Ajay. We pick and choose the ones that make sense for us. But technology is a great thing. We get to watch all of them on ESPN Plus or Big Ten Plus."

Sidelined with a right foot injury, Jacy has appeared in five games this season, averaging 16.0 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 6.0 steals. The Buckeyes dropped to 19-1 overall and 8-1 in the Big Ten with an 83-72 loss to visiting Iowa (16-4, 8-1) on Monday night.

Last season, she was first-team all-Big Ten and named an honorable mention all-American after averaging 19.7 points, 4.2 assists and 1.9 steals.

Through 17 games with Ohio, Ajay was averaging 1.7 points and 1.2 assists in 10.2 minutes per contest while coming off the bench for coach Jeff Boals’ team.

The siblings agree leaving northeast Ohio was difficult, but now they have no regrets.

“I was pretty upset,” said Jacy, a 2019 Coffman graduate who also played high school volleyball. “I had a couple close friends in Cleveland, but my dad explained what a nice area we were moving to. Obviously, the athletics are really good. Once I got there, I realized what a great place Columbus is and what a great school Coffman is.”

Ajay, a 2022 Coffman graduate, was in sixth grade when the family moved.

“I was really disappointed at first because I liked where I was at, I liked where my friends were,” he said. “I loved Cleveland. Even today, I love Cleveland, so that was really tough for me, but it worked out. If my dad would have stayed at Baldwin Wallace, he probably wouldn’t have been able to see me and Jacy play as much as he has.”

fdirenna@dispatch.com

@DispatchFrank

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Sheldon family finds ways to watch OSU's Jacy, OU's Ajay