Dayton Offseason Coaching Changes
Several programs in the Dayton area will begin their season in November with a new coach standing on the sidelines. Several of these coaches are joining the next program in line while others are starting their high school basketball coaching careers. Here are the 4 biggest coaching changes to note in Dayton.
Kyle Youker (Springboro)- Youker inherits the varsity program after coaching the Freshman and JV teams at Springboro for the past several years. He will take over for Mike Holweger who led the Panthers to 56 wins over his 4 years coaching. The Panthers took a hit losing several key players to graduation but since Youker has been in the program for some time, I feel he will do just fine.
Mitch Westerheide (Milton-Union)- Westerheide, who coached as an assistant last season at Edison State, takes over for a Bulldogs program that went 3-20 and only totaled one win in league play. Westerheide inherits a program that returns 4 of their top 5 scorers from last year. Although he does not have much experience coaching at the high school level, I have confidence Westerheide will be successful with the Bulldogs.
Kevin Kuwik (Wayne)- One of the biggest names to now coach high school basketball in Dayton, Kuwik takes over the Warriors basketball team for Travis Trice, who led the Warriors to a state championship in 2015 as well as continued success over the past several seasons. Kuwik was an assistant coach on Archie Miller’s staff at the University of Dayton for the past few seasons. Besides the Flyers, he also was an assistant coach with Butler and Ohio University. Although Kuwik has no experience coaching at the high school level, his success with the Flyers gives me confidence he can continue a winning tradition at Wayne. Kuwik returns several key players as well that will help him transition to the high school game.
Mackenzie Perry (Tri-Village)- Perry inherits one of the best small school basketball teams in Dayton after coach Josh Sagester stepped down in April. Perry was a coach at Bradford High School, and led the team to 4 wins over his 2 seasons coaching there. Sagester had won several CCC titles as well as a state championship in 2015. Perry will find himself in a tough situation for he loses 4 of 5 starters from last year’s Patriot team. He does have a positive attitude about this transition, which makes me believe Perry will do just fine.