Gary Kellough

[Hitchbone64]

The two coaches mentioned above have not made it to the state semi-finals let alone won the state championship.

Bottom line: All of these coaches mentioned on this thread are Very good coaches and I think with Coach K's State Title it just made his resume very, very good.

What people don't know is that these older coaches in southern ohio stick together and help each other out. They are friends and I'm sure not many of them care what we are writing on these internet forums. They are old school when it comes to teaching the game of basketball and All of them are special in their own way...

baller,

Are you calling them "old"...lol....

I agree with you on the coaching fraternity. The thing I like is these guys coach these high school kids as hard as the college coaches do. Yet, there compensation would not pay the taxes on the salaries of the big time coaches. I think they all deserve credit for their efforts. Some have better results then others because of talent, scheme, support or whatever, but it takes something special in all of them to put years and years and years of preparation, dedication and even babysitting these kids. Better then that they leave a mark on these kids that many times last a lifetime.

GO CAVS!!! 2008 STATE CHAMPS!!!

[bman618]

This is no knock against Coach Kellough, but give Humpty and Chambers to Van Matre and Persin and they'd go places too. Coach Kellough had one of those type teams you don't see often in SE Ohio. Kellough was at ZT for many years and didn't win a district title. Does that make him a bad coach? No, ZT had a successful program in the SVC and made many district tournaments. Eventually coaching can only take you so far and you need some more talent to reach the heights that Chillicothe did this year. I can argue they had 3-4 good Division I college athletes on that team. Most teams around here are lucky to have one.

[baller3]

bman, This is no knock on Coach V but if Coach K had a player like Dante Jackson I'm sure the Cavs would have went places that they didn't. There is no doubt Humpty and Ray were great players however Dante Jackson might have been the best Southeast district player EVER. So there is no need to go there. Don't be ashamed to give Coach K a little credit. State Champs in 2008.

Good post Hitchbone.

Go Cavs!

[bman618]

I don't have a coach in the fight. I've heaped praise on Coach Kellough on this thread, but he did have a team that is rare in the southeast with 3-4 legitimate D1 college athletes. Greenfield was a good team when Dante was there, but they only had the one real good player. Chillicothe had two players I'd compare to Dante and then a good supporting cast.

One more note...Kellough was a good coach before he came to Chillicothe with what he did at Zane Trace,as I mentioned before. The state title is the icing on the cake.

[baller3]

Greenfield was 23-0 and the number 1 ranked team in the state two years ago. Dante was flat amazing his 4 yrs at McClain. I think his supporting cast was very good also. That team ran into a hungry Chillicothe team that wasn't ranked but was wanting to be noticed.

I agree with you that this Cavs team was somewhat rare. I applaud Coach K on molding players like Seth Dawes and Caleb Knights. These two players were placed into the starting lineup when they were young 9th graders. At that time I believe Seth was only about 6 feet tall and a year later he grew about 4 inches. I think what helped these kids out is that they played a tough schedule the last few years. When these two kids were freshman they were playing a full season in the OCC. Most coaches would have played them on the reserve level but Coach K thought they had potential and it payed off for him & his team.

The tournament run was special and fun to watch. These young athletes will be remembered by many for years to come. The credit goes to the kids & coaching staff for working so hard to accomplish greatness.

[bman618]

Coach Kellough did do a good job with some in game changes and I applaud Chilli for their tough schedule. I'm a big proponent of playing a tough schedule because it prepares you well for the tournament. I just don't think we should discount the Jordan's, Van Matre's, Persin's, etc. just because they haven't won state. To me Kellough was a good coach before he ever came to Chilli and this was the icing.