Jackson looking for new coach?

[db98]

http://www.thetelegramnews.com/main.asp?SectionID=7&SubSectionID=13&ArticleID=3420

[Ty Webb]

Didn't I hear that Gene Layton resigned at River Valley? He might be a good one for the Ironmen to get.

[Ironman92]

Well Jackson definately has the right Superintendent for teh world of possible basketball contacts. A long time coach of Piketon and then Western Pike.

I don't know if Larry Jordan is too lofty of shot....but he has no coaching job, would not need a teaching position and would not have to relocate. I'd guess he'll get asked.

Bret Coreno...If he's still around the Piketon area. I think he may have succeeded Howard at Piketon......not sure of how any of that worked out...but he's still young and proved he can coach.

The Peebles coach of last season is not coaching I don't believe.......he had a nice season at the helm helping Peebles to the districts with a very young, yet talented team.

and of course the local Jackson names include some candidates

I'm guessing Jackson will get someone who is pretty well thought of around SE Ohio basketball.

[danicalifornia]

Ironman- Coreno resigned under pressure from the board a few years back, but is back at Piketon as the Girls Coach, he just took over a couple months back. He would be a great hire if Jackson could get him.

[bengalfan76]

Hire Phil for a year and find a coach for the long haul.
Or hire Larry for a few years and allow him to groom his son Michael for the Job.
Win/Win situation.

[Ironman92]

Phil would be a great hire....but he's already pulling about 200 hours a week it seems.......he's got a few other things on his table!

I bet we hear something soon.

[nickle back]

I was told Larry Jordan accepted the job after interviewing last week. Good hire for Jackson if it is a fact.

[Ironman92]

If he accepted last week, then you'd think it would've snuck thru the cracks into the community a bit more.

If it's true (and I wouldn't doubt it)...it'll be interesting! He's as about as big of a name as you could get.

[Main Man]

The legend will be great there .....................................Give it a couple of years................

[ocho stinko]

Is Jackson having a board meeting tonight to hire the new coach?

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

I just came from that board meeting and Larry Jordan is indeed the new coach at Jackson with his son Mike as his assistant coach. Max Morrow will remain on staff as the JV coach.

[bengalfan76]

You just hit a homerun with that hire.

[Army]

Great Coach. Good Luck Ironmen

Two old SVC Coaches will be going at it again when Coach K's CAVS and Coach J's Ironmen play against each other in the SEOAL.

[Ironman92]

Jackson players can go on to tell their grand kids that they had Michael Jordan for a basketball coach.


Is Mike a grad of 1992 by chance of Southeastern....if so I have a pretty good story....if not my memory gets me again.

[nickle back]

Good to see Coach Jordan still on the sideline. Best of luck. I believe Jackson has struggled the last few years. What do they have returning?

[Ironman92]

Was Chad by chance about 6'0 in the 6th grade?

[Keyser_sozeThrice]

Here is Larry Jordan's hiring story. Enjoy.


Jackson lands a legend in Jordan

By PAUL BOGGS
Sports Editor

It’s true that a man named Michael Jordan has been hired to coach basketball at Jackson High School.

Okay, not that Michael Jordan, but the Ironmen indeed have a legend as their new varsity boys basketball coach.

“Larry Legend” that is in one Larry Jordan.

That’s because Jordan, the longtime and successful head coach at Southeastern High School, was hired on Tuesday night as the new bench boss of the Ironmen.

Jordan, during a special meeting of the Jackson City Board of Education, was unanimously approved in a 4-0 vote as the Ironmen’s third head coach in as many seasons and fourth in the past five years.

Board member Diana Bowman was absent from the meeting.

Jordan, a high school head basketball coach of 37 years including 34 at his alma mater of Southeastern, replaces Bruce Hurst, who resigned on Aug. 5.

Jordan brings to Jackson his legendary status, having won 568 games with three state tournament appearances in his 37-year coaching career.

After a controversial departure from Southeastern in the spring, Jordan said he still wanted to coach, and was happy that he was approached by the Jackson City Schools administration.

“The administration contacted me and there was ‘a want’,” said Jordan. “After the situation I went through, I was really happy to feel wanted. That’s a big reason for being here, plus I love to coach. I wasn’t quite ready to hang it up. Jackson has given me a great opportunity and I’m hoping to repay them and do a really good job for them.”

To say that Jordan did an excellent job at Southeastern would be an understatement.

Not only as a coach, but first as a player.

Jordan captured the Ohio Class A Player of the Year honor in 1964, then went on to start for three seasons at Morehead State University.

The Panthers posted a stellar 24-1 record that season — the same record they recorded in 1970-71, which was Jordan’s first season as coach.

The team’s lone loss that year was in the district tournament championship game.

In his three-plus decades at Southeastern, his teams won 20 or more games 13 times, compiling 29 winning seasons in the process.

Southeastern was also successful in the postseason tournament, and advanced to the state semifinals in 1977, 1981 and 1990.

Most recently, his Panthers advanced to the Division III regional semifinals in 2001-02 and 2002-03.

Southeastern defeated Wellston that season in the Division III district tournament.

In all, his teams have made 10 regional tournament appearances and 19 district tournament appearances.

The Panthers have also captured the Scioto Valley Conference championship 15 times with Jordan being named the SVC Coach of the Year for 14 seasons.

The last of those league championships and SVC COY honors came two years ago.

He has been a district coach of the year five times, including most recently in 2001-02.

That same season, Jordan was honored by the Associated Press as the Division III Coach of the Year in the Southeast District.

Jordan was highly-regarded at Southeastern, as the Panthers’ gymnasium is named after him.

He was also the recipient of this year’s Paul Walker award from the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association, the highest coaching honor in the state as awarded by the OHSBCA.

The Paul Walker award is presented annually by the OHSBCA to an active coaching member of the association who has made significant contributions to high school basketball.

Oak Hill head coach Norm Persin was the award’s recipient six years ago.

Jordan’s return to Southeastern in 1970 actually marked the first of two coaching stints at the school.

In the late 1990s, he left the Panther program for three years at Waverly, then did not coach during the 1999-2000 season.

He returned to Southeastern the following winter, and remained until this past season which saw the young Panthers go just 3-18.

That was the same record which Jackson posted last season under the first-year mentor Hurst.

Hurst resigned under pressure, amid allegations of his involvement in an incident which occurred at a team basketball camp in June.

Jordan also endured a controversial split, and was non-renewed at Southeastern, but will have another opportunity to add to his legendary status.

It took Jackson City Schools Superintendent Phil Howard and Jackson High School Athletic Director Bob Kight less than a week to interview Jordan and for Jordan to accept the position.

And, moving quickly to find a head coach at the outset of the academic year can be cumbersome.

Howard, the former Piketon head coach and who coached against Jordan, said he was glad to have him “on our team.”

“I’m very excited to have Coach Jordan as part of our program,” said Howard. “When I was coaching at Piketon, we faced each other twice a year, and sometimes three times if we met up in the tournament. I’m privileged to have the opportunity to work with Larry.”

Kight said that Jordan “brings age, experience, stability and credibility to the Jackson basketball program.”

“Regardless of his win-loss record, and that is obviously very good when you’re talking about 568 wins and three state tournament appearances, two things are always consistent about Larry Jordan-coached teams,” he said. “They play extremely hard and they are extremely well-disciplined. Both on and off the floor.”

On the floor, Jordan said he doesn’t “have a philosophy” in terms of style of play.

“I have to go with what I’ve got kids-wise,” he said. “A high school coach has to adjust pretty much every year, being able to do with what is there. I guess my only real philosophy is that the kids play hard.”

The Ironmen, under four-year head coach Dustin Ford and two-year mentor Todd May, played a more deliberate and patient offensive style with a half-court defensive mindset.

In Hurst’s only season, Jackson quickened the pace and relied on the three-point shot.

Jordan will attempt to jumpstart the Jackson program, which has experienced more losing seasons than winning in recent times.

“It takes kids that want to play and it takes kids with athletic ability to be successful,” he said. “As a coach, you try to put players in good situations. If the kids are willing to do what they are asked to do, we’ll do well.”

Last year’s Ironmen entered the season inexperienced, and won just three games while suffering 15 consecutive setbacks in one stretch.

After a season-opening win over Minford, the Red and White were winless from Dec. 11 until Feb. 9, bookended by a buzzer-beating win at Unioto and a victory over Athens in the Southeastern Ohio Athletic League Day of Champions game.

Jordan admits that the larger-school SEOAL “is awesome”, which includes Division II state champion Chillicothe.

“There’s not too many weak sisters in it,” said Jordan. “But I look forward to the challenge and hope the kids here want to come out and bust their butts.”

The new coach added that his primary — and immediate — goal is “to get as many kids out that will come out and to get them to play hard.”

“If they are willing to come, play hard and play together as a team, then everything else will take care of itself,” he said.

Jordan’s staff will include his son Mike, who played for his father and has 11 years of basketball coaching experience for both boys and girls.

Max Morrow, the Jackson junior varsity coach last season, will return to that capacity.

Two Tylers — Tyler Swackhammer and Tyler Pierpont — were hired as the ninth and eighth grade coaches respectively.

On the girls side, the Jackson BOE rehired Andy Rice, Anna Ramey, Greg Potter and Carl Wooten, as Rice and Ramey will assist Jay Martin as the varsity assistant and reserve coach respectively.

Potter and Wooten are the eighth and seventh grade girls coaches.

[email protected]

[freethrow]

Jackson will never be a basketball school.