State-tournament bound Buchtel, Hoban feature several alums on basketball coaching staffs

Coaches Rayshon Dent and T.K. Griffith are proud graduates of Buchtel High School and Archbishop Hoban High School, respectively.

Each of their coaching staffs are filled with alumni from their particular school, too, as the Griffins and Knights prepped this week to play in the OHSAA boys basketball state tournament at University of Dayton Arena.

Buchtel goes to the Division II state tournament with a coaching staff that includes five Buchtel graduates: Dent (1986) and assistants Greg Clark (1979), Kevin Simpson (1981), Darius Knight (2003) and Donald Garth (2006).

The other assistants on the Griffins staff are Steve Culp and Michael Williams, both former boys basketball head coaches at North. Culp was also in the lead chair at Firestone, and was an assistant at St. Vincent-St. Mary and Stow.

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Hoban has reached the Division I state tournament with a coaching staff that includes four Hoban graduates: Griffith (1989) and assistants Tim Lucey (1997), Norm Jesser (2010) and Tony Threadgill (2020).

The other assistant on the Knights staff are Ian Adams, Mike MacDonald, Matt Vowles and Stephen White.

White was previously the boys basketball head coach at East and Buchtel for a combined 19 seasons. Lucey formerly was the head coach for the Chippewa boys basketball team for four seasons.

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Buchtel assistant Steve Culp worked with LeBron James at STVM

Culp guided the Firestone boys basketball team from 1995-2000. His five-year run with the Falcons included a Division I district title and a regional final appearance in 1997.

“The team I coached at Firestone in 1997 is identical to this Buchtel team,” Culp said. “We had 6-foot-3 straight across down to 5-foot-9. They knew how to play. We figured how to play the game together. We beat Mentor, who was No. 1 in the state, at the Canton Memorial Civic Center and then lost to Cleveland Heights. They won the state championship with Jamal Harris, Theo Dixon and J.R. Bremer.”

Culp was an assistant at STVM for three seasons when LeBron James was a sophomore, junior and senior. The Irish won two state titles in that three-year span.

“Steve’s help has been priceless,” Dent said. “Coach Culp has a wealth of experience. He is a good person and a great sounding board for me. He brings a lot of different ideas and concepts that help expand our team as far as our philosophy in the program. He has helped me immensely.

“The fires that he has been through from coaching at St. Vincent-St. Mary when coach Keith Dambrot and coach Dru Joyce took them to Columbus and that experience he has with Stow and coach Dave Close has been invaluable throughout this playoff run. He brings such a great calmness to the table.”

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Culp said this Buchtel team is full of “high IQ” players.

“We are at a point where we are moving the ball very well,” Culp said. “Gilmour threw every defense at us in the regional final, but we are at a point that no matter what you do, we have learned how to play. Move, get the ball in the right areas. If we are going against a 1-3-1, you know where the open areas are. If we are going against a 3-2, you know where the open areas are. They know it. They are moving the ball. If you move the ball and bodies, you can be successful.

“We have got better chemistry this year. We have learned how to defend. We have learned how to see actions. We have learned how to handle different sets. The kids have been prepared, in my opinion, at a college level with scouting reports and practice plans so they understand exactly how to attack and exactly how to play defensively. They see things coming and they call plays out before the other team gets into it. When you are at that level where you can start calling stuff out like, ‘Back screen is coming to your side,’ that is good stuff. You don’t see that out of a lot of schools and kids. When we can call your plays as you are calling them out, we’re pretty good.”

Dent said his assistants “bring a bunch of different elements.”

“Coach Greg Clark has been around Buchtel forever as well as coach Kevin Simpson,” Dent said. “We have been around the program for a long time. We all have the passion of west Akron and Buchtel and seeing this success come about. When coach Culp came into the program, it seemed like a seamless fit. Coach Culp does a lot of things to mentor me as far as rounding my coaching style out.

"I have been around a lot of coaches and I try to implement different things that I have seen throughout the years from Harvey Sims to Jack Greynolds Jr. to Steve White. Coach Mike Williams is the same way. He is very knowledgeable just like Harvey, Jack and both Steve’s. They all have been head coaches and they all shared ideas with me over the years and I appreciate them for that.”

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Tim Lucey, Stephen White bring experience to Hoban coaching staff

Hoban's players are also well prepared by their experience coaching staff.

“Tim Lucey and I have been together since my first year coaching at Hoban,” T.K. Griffith said. “The 1993-1994 school year was his freshman year and my first year as the boys basketball coach. I coached him and to go through this whole 30-year journey with Tim as a part of it is really special. My dad [Tim] and Tom Goodall coached him when he was younger. My dad was good friend’s with Tim’s dad. To experience this with Tim is special.”

White compiled a record of 310-122 in 19 seasons as a head coach, 14 with Buchtel from 2003-2017 and five with East from 1998-2003. Prior to those head coaching gigs, he was an assistant from 1988-1998 at Coventry, Central-Hower, North and Buchtel.

White’s Buchtel teams were regulars in the Division II district bracket, and he led the Griffins to eight City Series regular-season championships and seven league postseason titles.

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“Steve White is a voice of wisdom,” Griffith said. “He loves to be around the kids. … He is a good soul.”

Griffith lauded MacDonald as “an excellent math teacher” at Hoban and described Adams as “an energizer bunny.”

“Some people call Ian ‘Mini T.K.,’” Griffith said. “He is an English teacher here and I was an English teacher. He is actually in my former classroom. Once I became principal, I lost my classroom and he is in it.”

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: State-tournament bound Buchtel, Hoban feature familair faces, alums