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What's next for the Siders? What direction should they go?

Obviously I don't know any specifics, but did they decide they needed a new coach or did Coach Bradford resign? From the outside looking in, I thought he appeared to be a good coach.

Bradford was an excellent coach, he will be missed dearly.

I'm not sure who will hold the reigns at West next. Minus a couple seniors, there isn't much talent left. Add in a few kids that's transferred out and you're looking at some down years at West. Perhaps a young guy who is interested in building the program from the ground up is the right choice, but often times administration is too oblivious to notice that you need TALENT to WIN.

Football will always be the sport at West and will make it difficult for any coach. Example being - a great one in Bradford just stepped down.

The real question, is do they have, or could they make a job for someone?

Jim Mora wrote:The real question, is do they have, or could they make a job for someone?

There could be a lot of shuffling around the area. With West, New Boston, Green and maybe Northwest all being open jobs in the county, who really knows where the open teaching jobs are. Unfortunately, you could have coaches leaving other jobs to take one that is now open and creating more open coaching jobs.

Runner00 wrote:What's next for the Siders? What direction should they go?

This is a blow to West Basketball, Bradford is a very underrated basketball coach, and will be successful if he choose to go elsewhere. I think that West should go young, from what I hear the biddy ball and junior high programs have flourished under Bradford, so they need someone with the desire and energy to sustain this. Good Luck West!

bbjunky81 wrote:Bradford was an excellent coach, he will be missed dearly.

I'm not sure who will hold the reigns at West next. Minus a couple seniors, there isn't much talent left. Add in a few kids that's transferred out and you're looking at some down years at West. Perhaps a young guy who is interested in building the program from the ground up is the right choice, but often times administration is too oblivious to notice that you need TALENT to WIN.

Football will always be the sport at West and will make it difficult for any coach. Example being - a great one in Bradford just stepped down.

Yes he is an excellent coach. He will be successful in anything he chooses to do. And you are correct about the emphasis on football at West. This will greatly plague whoever his successor is.

Sorry to hear about Coach Bradford leaving the coaching position at West. He did an outstanding job at East when he was there and has made West a competitive opponent every night out and had a very good team two years ago. I heard he has some young kids at home so maybe he's just wanting to be involved with them for awhile too as they are growing up. I always thought he would make a very good college coach.

Losing Coach Bradford is a HUGE blow for West, I dont see Coach Bradford being out of the game long.

To be completely honest, this sucks. Bradford was an alumni who was personally vested in the program. He built a competitive team and built players with fundamentals, something that had not occurred at West fot a while. happenedI could of seen them having a solid season with who we have coming back. He will be missed.

I would love to see us hire Greg Maynard. He's not a teacher, big he took to women's program success that no one ever had.
I know men and women's basketball are very different, but the guy can coach. I don't if he would be interested though.

There's always talk of Charlie Kitchen, but I doubt that happens.

sider wrote:To be completely honest, this sucks. Bradford was an alumni who was personally vested in the program. He built a competitive team and built players with fundamentals, something that had not occurred at West fot a while. happenedI could of seen them having a solid season with who we have coming back. He will be missed.

I would love to see us hire Greg Maynard. He's not a teacher, big he took to women's program success that no one ever had.
I know men and women's basketball are very different, but the guy can coach. I don't if he would be interested though.

There's always talk of Charlie Kitchen, but I doubt that happens.

Very true about Coach Bradford and fundamentals. I seen today is it now posted on the OHSAA website, will be interested to hear who all applies.

sider wrote:To be completely honest, this sucks. Bradford was an alumni who was personally vested in the program. He built a competitive team and built players with fundamentals, something that had not occurred at West fot a while. happenedI could of seen them having a solid season with who we have coming back. He will be missed.

I would love to see us hire Greg Maynard. He's not a teacher, big he took to women's program success that no one ever had.
I know men and women's basketball are very different, but the guy can coach. I don't if he would be interested though.

There's always talk of Charlie Kitchen, but I doubt that happens.

Good post.

I still think Kitchen is the best basketball coach I have seen at West. In just a half year he took a totally undisciplined (albeit talented) team and had them playing excellent basketball.

Maynard would be a great choice also if he were interested.

Hate to see Bradford go.

Our basketball program is getting better. The young kids coming up are more focused on basketball. The youth complex is gonna make a big difference. Its just gonna a few seasons to see the results.

Being a huge fan of our basketball program for the last 11 or so years I hate to see Bradford leave. I have watched some very bad, record wise, basketetball during my years then Bradford came and made us a tough out every night. One thing I wanted more then anything was for him to take us to the Convo and he about knocked off Valley to do it. With that I thought he was taking our program in the right direction.

I will be in the gym for all 23 and hopefully plus games next year and I hope we make the right hire for our future!
Go Siders!

Will be interesting to see if Bradford is done coaching or if he moves on somewhere else (New Boston?). Hate to see it for West because he had the program going in the right direction. Don't know if it had anything to do with Bradford's decision, but like others have said, basketball will always be second-fiddle to football on the West side.*

I hate to say it, but I think that Travis leaving says a lot about how other boys sports are viewed at West. An alumnus leaving his school that he had turned around at the peak of his coaching prime could be a warning sign to any perspective coach. Just a thought.

Crab's brother wrote:I hate to say it, but I think that Travis leaving says a lot about how other boys sports are viewed at West. An alumnus leaving his school that he had turned around at the peak of his coaching prime could be a warning sign to any perspective coach. Just a thought.

I sadly agree crab. Follow the money. Theres a ton of booster support and sponsor money for football and much less for other sports. This is not a put down to all who financially support football, its just reality. Basketball at West has neer been consistently competitive. Baseball has always felt like an after thought, even though it's consistently a winning program. Track and field has never really been competitive. Soccer and golf hasn't gotten a great support (other than a select few). It's hard to equally support many sports.

It's a challenge that west faces being an extreme rural, low socioeconomic, low student per square mile school district.
Parents who live close may take thier children to every sport year. Parents that live in the western and northern part of the district are probably much less willing to drive close to 15 miles each way to take and pick their kid up.

I think this is one reason Valley and Burg have an advantage currently (along with great coaching and parental supports)

sider wrote:

Crab's brother wrote:I hate to say it, but I think that Travis leaving says a lot about how other boys sports are viewed at West. An alumnus leaving his school that he had turned around at the peak of his coaching prime could be a warning sign to any perspective coach. Just a thought.

I sadly agree crab. Follow the money. Theres a ton of booster support and sponsor money for football and much less for other sports. This is not a put down to all who financially support football, its just reality. Basketball at West has neer been consistently competitive. Baseball has always felt like an after thought, even though it's consistently a winning program. Track and field has never really been competitive. Soccer and golf hasn't gotten a great support (other than a select few). It's hard to equally support many sports.

It's a challenge that west faces being an extreme rural, low socioeconomic, low student per square mile school district.
Parents who live close may take thier children to every sport year. Parents that live in the western and northern part of the district are probably much less willing to drive close to 15 miles each way to take and pick their kid up.

I think this is one reason Valley and Burg have an advantage currently (along with great coaching and parental supports)

Very much agree.

Crab's brother wrote:I hate to say it, but I think that Travis leaving says a lot about how other boys sports are viewed at West. An alumnus leaving his school that he had turned around at the peak of his coaching prime could be a warning sign to any perspective coach. Just a thought.

Crabs brother I think you should not speak on things when you have no information to base your statements on. You do not know why Travis stepped down.

Noles fan: so why he leave then? If he stepped down for personal reasons, then more power to him. But if he is coaching somewhere else next year or two, then I agree with crab in that it not a good sign for west basketball program going forward when a good coach who is an alum voluntarily steps down to take another job.*

noles_fan wrote:

Crab's brother wrote:I hate to say it, but I think that Travis leaving says a lot about how other boys sports are viewed at West. An alumnus leaving his school that he had turned around at the peak of his coaching prime could be a warning sign to any perspective coach. Just a thought.

Crabs brother I think you should not speak on things when you have no information to base your statements on. You do not know why Travis stepped down.

I never claimed to know why he was stepping down. If it is a personal issue that should not be here, that is more than fine. However, nothing even speculating that was a possible reason has been discussed, so I stand by my statement until something comes out otherwise.