High school: Former Keystone football coach Rob Clarico named Black River AD

The Black River school board announced the hiring of athletic director Rob Clarico on Thursday night. Clarico comes to Black River after serving as an assistant principal at Firelands. He was the football coach at Keystone from 2004-16, when he got to see the support for the Pirates athletic teams firsthand. "Being at Keystone for all of those years coaching football, I always had a great relationship with the players and coaches at Black River," he said. "I always respected how much the community loved their sports teams, and you knew they supported them win, lose or draw." The hiring of Clarico ends a search that began after Ted Gordon told the board that he was stepping down after 45 years in education. That will not stop Gordon, who filled in after Josh Calame left for Plymouth, from checking in and continuing to follow Black River's athletic pursuits. "I've got grandkids that I want to spend time with," Gordon said. "I'll still be around from time to time, but I knew it was the right time to let someone else take charge." The history and relationship between Gordon and Clarico is lengthy, as Gordon hired Clarico as Keystone football coach nearly two decades ago. The two have remained close and share each other's vision of supporting student-athletes. "He's a first-class individual," Gordon said. "I got to know him and his family really well. We have a lot of the same values and outlooks on things." Clarico, 55, is a graduate of Berea High and Miami of Ohio. He was a student teacher at Cincinnati Colerain before practicing law for seven years. Eventually, Clarico realized his passion was in teaching and coaching football, which drew him back to the sidelines. Coaching was almost second nature to Clarico after growing up as the son of 2003 Lorain County Football Coaches Hall of Fame inductee Don Clarico, whose coaching career featured stops at Avon and Columbia, as well as assistant posts at Midview and on his son's staff at Keystone. "When I was young, I was always on the sidelines at games or practices when I wasn't in school," Clarico said. "I grew up watching (my dad), and I always said he was way ahead of his time making relationships with his players and always supporting them and showing them he loved them. That is how I tried to approach coaching." Those relationships were reciprocated, as Rob Clarico was blown away by the messages of support and remembrance from his father's former players when Don passed away in October at the age of 85. "I only hope that I can have a fraction of the relationships and the impact on the lives of my players that my dad had on his," Clarico said. Rob Clarico had a 64-67 record while at Keystone and won the final four meetings with the Pirates to raise his record against always hard-nosed Black River to 5-7. "Their teams were always gritty, hard-working and disciplined," he said. "You could always tell they loved football and were always very sportsmanlike." After deciding to take a step back from coaching, Clarico knew he had a lot of wisdom left to share from his experiences on the sidelines and found his outlet as an athletic director. "Once I was done coaching, I thought a lot about what I wanted to do with the rest of my career," he said. "When I was at Keystone, I loved mentoring younger coaches and that's what I hope to do at Black River. "I want to share my experiences and passion for team building so that these players have the same great experience in sports that I had." According to Gordon, Clarico will have a community of players and coaches ready to listen, learn and help. "The community is totally supportive of its athletes," Gordon said. "You know if you ask for help (the community) is going to help out. The players are tremendous and the administration I got to work with was always supportive." Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.