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As a Unioto Grad, i have to ask what has happend to the basketball program? Used to be one of the better teams in the area year in and year out, lately has been a middle to celler team in the Svc.

Coach Lisath posted a 40-27 record going 27-15 in the SVC, Back to Back 2nd place finshes with a 10-4 league record both years and a Sectional Title...the program was on it's way back up to the top and the rug was pulled. Lovely returned and couldn't find that old Showtime Magic, now Hoops will try to return the Shermans back to the glory days. The talent is coming, but the problem will be Division II status with Greenfield, Chillicothe, Hillsboro, Logan Elm, Circleville, Washington CH, and others. Lovely is a Hall of Fame coach.....but I think he hurt the program when he returned. Just my opinion!

i played for lisath and lovely, we went to the convo one year and the next we got a new coach. Is Lisath still at piketon.?

Lisath is still at Piketon, with a very young and talented team. The Redstreaks are 10-4 going into a tough weekend with Huntington and Columbus Mifflin.

Jimmy- I agree with you completely. Right now, the kids don't know how to win and Coach Hoops will get it turned around if given time AND effort from the kids, which I think he'll have.

There are a bunch of freshmen on the JV team, so that should help and they have lots of height coming through the program, just when those kids get tougher and stronger, it will help them greatly. They have only got beaten badly in 3 of their 11 losses and have been in all but 1 game at the half.

Coach Lisath had the program going in a great direction, then the job was ripped out from under him. I loved Lovely, but I think Lisath would've had much more success with the latter teams at Unioto.

the program went down hill FAST when coach lisath left!!! i remember my sons sr. yr. they got to the point to where they didnt seem to care anymore.

kids didn't want to work. Very soft. Lovely was a great coach. The mindset changed at Unioto. Not allowed to coach at The U any more. Not just a basketball problem.

It seems to me that every school Lisath has coached at, the programs are in worse shape when he leaves than when he arrived. Look at Unioto, he won with talent that had been developed by Lovely's program. The Chillicothe girls, look where he took that program. They won on Bunstine's talent and nothing more. When she was gone he left.

When Lisath left Unioto, talent was there, just it was a different kind of talent then Lovely was used to. They had very athletic classes that should've been running the floor and pressing nonstop, but instead were normally dropped into a halfcourt game.

I still Lovely did a good job his 2nd time around, especially near the end.

Daisy, you got it totally backwards. When Lisath left Unioto, kids left the school. Lisath supported the pee-wee program big time, on his own time. He went to Chillicothe and worked miracles. Wherever Jeff coaches he will be a success. Forcing Jeff out was the biggest mistake Unioto made.

Daisy wrote:It seems to me that every school Lisath has coached at, the programs are in worse shape when he leaves than when he arrived. Look at Unioto, he won with talent that had been developed by Lovely's program. The Chillicothe girls, look where he took that program. They won on Bunstine's talent and nothing more. When she was gone he left.

As I recall, when Lisath took over Unioto they had back to back 10-11 seasons and he took marginal players and made them compete at a high level each night by giving a 110% effort with great sportsmanship.

I'm told by some Chillicothe folks he took over a program that had 10 straight losing season, made the girls believe they could win, and changed the some attitudes, gained respect from the tough OCC conference and turned the program around. When he left the program was in good shape, just left in the wrong hands....and they still had Bunstine and two starters returning.

As a Former Piketon parent, I watched him walk into a tough situation after losing a our coach under controversy, implement his system and go 18-5 losing to State Runner-Up Ironton in the District. After losing everything, I've watched him slowly build this program back up, under what I feel is extreme pressure, yet he appears to remain calm through the tough times.

I'm told by Portsmouth people that he did a lot for that program during his eight years as an assistant coach, which I'm sure he enjoyed and learned from the tons of success they had in the 80's and 90's.

Although I didn't agree with losing Coreno, I'm glad we were able to get a quality coach to replace him. As I've said Ron Lovely is a Hall of Fame Coach and I'm not comparing the two...I'm just saying Unioto was in good shape before he decided to come back.

Marginal players at Unioto ? He had the player of the year one of his two seasons.
I think he has done a good job anywhere he has coached. Seems like he does not get the chance to stay long enough to see if he can build a consistant winning program. Hopefully he gets the chance at Piketon because they are well on their way.

nickle back wrote:Marginal players at Unioto ? He had the player of the year one of his two seasons.
I think he has done a good job anywhere he has coached. Seems like he does not get the chance to stay long enough to see if he can build a consistant winning program. Hopefully he gets the chance at Piketon because they are well on their way.

You're talking about David Huffman who played for Lovely, Lisath coached his brother Bobby. According to my sources Lisath never coached a 1000 point scorer at Unioto and only two kids made first team All-SVC in three years. Only one went on to play basketball at the next level, other than the kids that played at OUC.

Pretty sure he coached the P.O.Y. in Huffman. They finished second that year with him. Maybe I am mistaken though. I am sure someone can clarify. OU-C is not the next level?

Nate Sever was player of the year that year, both teams went to the convo.

Cat. That name does not ring a bell as far as P.O.Y. goes. I was fairly certain he was coach when Huffman won the award. Like I said, could be mistaken. Doesn't really matter now I guess.

Getting back on topic. Unioto had a few good years in the early to mid 90's. One State appearance but other than that I don't recall them making it out of the District more than one or two times. It is going to be hard for them to compete if they stay in D-II.

Cat, Nate Sever finished his career @ ZT... Jaren Cox (ZT) was POY their Sr. year.

i think he meant nates brother

He was not POY either. Played for Adena... Bill.