Adam Cestaro, Tim Maxworthy out at Highland

A winning season without a senior in the program wasn't enough for Highland to retain boys basketball coach Adam Cestaro. The same went for Tim Maxworthy, whose wrestling program finished second in the Suburban League American Conference. Both moves were made official when the school did not recommend to renew Maxworthy and Cestaro's one-year supplemental contracts during a board meeting Monday. The decision not to retain Cestaro in particular raised plenty of eyebrows from fellow coaches in the Greater Akron area. "Really there were two pieces," athletic director Jonathan Bailey said in regards to boys basketball. "The first piece was the competitiveness, or lack thereof. Over the past eight years, it's been all right, around .500 in regards to wins and losses. That was a weighing factor, and the second piece was we're looking for was a change with the excitement and culture regarding boys basketball. These are tough conversations. We love Coach Cestaro. He's a great guy and we appreciate everything he's done. We're just at a point where we're looking for a change in leadership. "We're also very appreciative for everything (Maxworthy) has done for the Highland wrestling program," Bailey added. "We've hit a point where we're looking for the next person to take us over the top." Cestaro's tenure ended after the Hornets won at least 10 games in all eight of his seasons, captured the 2018 SL American championship and never finished lower than fourth in the conference. The Highland High social studies teacher is the second-winningest coach in school history with a 102-89 record (.534), trailing only Fred Pollock, who went 172-231 over four stints from 1977-2002. This winter Highland went 13-11 overall and tied for third in the SL American with a 9-5 record despite having the youngest roster in the conference. Center Hunter Winston was the conference player of the year, fellow junior Maddox Albright was honorable mention All-Gazette and sophomore forward Noah Radigan averaged 10.8 points before tearing an ACL. Before the hiring of Cestaro's predecessor, Michael Murphy, Highland had just a 103-175 record (.371) from 1999-2012 despite going 18-4 in 2004-05. The Hornets are 149-113 (.569) with two league titles since. "I've coached a lot of really coachable guys, and I've made some great relationships in eight years as the head coach at Highland," Cestaro said. "I'm proud of the direction the program is headed in. I think we've made great strides with youth and middle school basketball. I'm especially thankful for the players. They played really hard and were really coachable. A lot of them, I have really good relationships to this day beyond graduation. "We competed. I thought that was one of the things that we brought was a competitive mentality that no matter who we were playing, we were ready for the Division I tournament. We were going to be tough, we were going to be physical and we were going to show our opponent that we were going to compete to win the game." Maxworthy, who works in maintenance at the Cleveland Clinic, took over the wrestling program in 2018 and guided the Hornets to the 2022 SL American championship, their first league title since 1996. Highland finished second to Aurora by a tight 285.5-281.5 score this season despite being hit hard by graduation losses. Under Maxworthy's guidance, the Hornets had a state placer in each of the last three seasons after the 2020 tournament was canceled due to COVID-19. James Scavuzzo was sixth in 2021 and fifth in 2022, while Lukas Stiles finished eighth in March. Highland also qualified six for state in 2022. Maxworthy came to Highland from Canton South and previously coached his alma mater, Buckeye, from 2012-15. Maxworthy is one the Bucks' most accomplished wrestlers, having placed first (2002), second (2001) and third (2003) in the state in his career. Highland loses Stiles and fellow four-year starter Creed Hill to graduation but is slated to return 2022 state qualifier Chase Crutchley (21-7) and Zisimos Giatis (35-16), among many other starters. "The relationships that I built with the good families and kids are what I'm most proud of," Maxworthy said. "We took the program from eight participants to over 30." Contact Albert Grindle at (330) 721-4043 or agrindle@medina-gazette.com.