Girls basketball: Ron Clady returns as Buckeye coach

The new girls basketball coach at Buckeye isn't really new. Ron Clady, who guided the Bucks to a 74-42 record from 2015-20, was hired Thursday to take over for Lynnae Whitehead, who left to take a teaching and assistant coaching position in the Mentor district. "We were most excited about the experience Ron brings to the table," Buckeye athletic director Jon Myers said. "Having somebody with varsity coaching experience was very important to us. "The connections he has with the student body, the relationships he has with the student body, we're really looking for him to build the program back up." Myers' next task is finding a boys basketball coach to succeed Tom Harrington, who also was Buckeye's athletic director prior to stepping down from both positions. Myers said the final round of interviews has started and a decision should be announced in the next few weeks. A career-based intervention teacher at Buckeye, the 52-year-old Clady originally resigned as coach to pursue a master's degree, which he will earn in educational technology from Miami (Ohio) University in December. "I knew when I left (coaching at) Buckeye I was ready to step down, but within a year I missed coaching and that's what led me over to Medina," said Clady, who spent the last two seasons coaching eighth-grade girls basketball at A.I. Root Middle School. "I still wasn't thinking about coaching varsity again, but the opportunity arose and the more I thought about it, the more I thought it was a good opportunity." With the Bucks having moved from the Patriot Athletic Conference to the Great Lakes Conference, Whitehead compiled a 20-43 record over three years, including 7-16 last season. Buckeye's top returning player is Isyss Ellis, who led the team in scoring with a 9.6 average last season. Ruby Hudak, who averaged 4.5 points, also returns for a program whose last winning season came under Clady in 2018-19, when the Bucks finished 20-4 overall and won the PAC Stars Division title with a 16-0 record. After posting season records of 15-8, 15-8, 14-10, 20-4 and 10-12 in his initial stint at Buckeye, Clady's first goal this time around is to get more girls involved in the program. "Without that, you're not going to be able to do what you want to do," he said. "We'll be looking for all athletes from all sports that we have at Buckeye, and we have some tremendous ones. We want to show them basketball is a thing they can do and be proud of. "It's going to take some time, but hopefully we'll take what we've got and push it farther than they thought they could go." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X.