The time demands for the average college student are arduous, at best.
There are hours of classes to attend, even more hours of homework and studying to be done and, at some point, you might want to fit in sleep, sustenance, and enjoying some semblance of a social life. Some students even juggle employment while furthering their education.
Free time is more than just at a premium. It’s practically non-existent.
Now imagine, in addition to all the cramming listed above, adding collegiate athletics into that daily routine.
Thousands of athletes do it, from Division I down to the junior college level, but not every athlete reaps the added benefit of a full, or even a partial scholarship. Some athletes, like those who keep lacing up their kicks to hoop it up at schools like Ohio University Eastern, are doing it for a different reason.
“It’s about the love of the game,” Jason Perkins admitted. “You’re not really getting anything else out of it, so you have to want to play.
“But I played with a lot of guys who were pretty good.”
Perkins, who owns his own business, also is the head girls’ basketball coach at Barnesville High School.
The Union Local graduate stopped playing after the culmination of the 2002-2003 Panthers’ season. He quickly shifted to the coaching arena, where he’s wore a whistle for the last 22 years.
It’s a game that grabs hold at a young age and, for many, it won’t let go.
In fact, Perkins’ first coaching job, on the junior high level at Union Local, also came while he was working, attending classes at Eastern and playing for the Panthers.
“Yeah, there wasn’t a whole lot of free time,” Perkins added with a chuckle.
Many local colleges can claim alumni who shifted from player to coach, but Eastern seems to have a considerable number of former players unable to shake that Basketball Jones.
Like Who?
You don’t have to travel far from OU Eastern’s campus to find a gymnasium where a former player is coaching.
Less than six miles away sits Union Local High School, where not one but both varsity basketball coaches are alums. Zach Delman for the boys and Rob Barr for the girls both wore the Green & White in their day.
Barr played in the 1980s, and while the self-employed father of two never got into teaching like so many coaches, the love of basketball never left. His first job came right after his senior year of high school when he served as a junior high coach, and he also officiated. He went to Florida for work for nearly a year before hearing that the program at Eastern was starting back up, so he returned.
Upon graduation, he had two stints as the junior high boys’ coach, both before the birth of his children and again when his son, all-Ohioan Joby Barr, took the court in Morristown.
“I’ve never coached anywhere but Union Local,” Rob Barr said. “I started coaching my son in fourth grade in rec league and things like that and (Mike) Podlasiak asked me if I wanted to coach.”
Barr had a lengthy stay at the junior high level, intermixed with some freshman coaching, before he put in for the girls’ varsity job. He didn’t get it, the first time, and he admitted he was a little bummed.
“It drove me out for a while and I went back to refereeing,” Barr said. “It was probably six years before I got the job this time.”
In his second season, Barr’s Jets are 20-0 after a narrow win against Linsly on Thursday and are the top seed in the OVAC’s Class AAA tourney which gets under way Monday.
Dellman’s been at his position a little longer, but also has experienced success. His charges are currently 10-5 and are in third place in the boys’ AAA standings.
Prior to taking over at Barnesville this season, Perkins was an assistant and junior varsity coach on Dellman’s staff at Union Local, this after serving as Dellman’s coach years before.
But Wait, There’s More
This trio of Union Local grads that have followed similar playing and coaching paths are not alone.
Locally, John Farrier at Bellaire and Monroe Central’s Troy Baker both have their teams in the OVAC’s version of the final four this coming Monday.
Baker recently celebrated his 200th victory as the Seminoles’ head coach and has built a solid program in both girls’ basketball and volleyball.
A couple former head coaches in Harrison Central’s Donnie Madzia and Union Local’s Ben Porter both called OUE home at one point. Madzia even went back to coach the Panthers’ men’s team for a stint. Another former Huskies’ coach, Chase Smith, played at OUE and Jordan Barbina, a multi-sport standout for the Jets, coached both at Eastern and East Richland Christian.
Mike and Greg Roby, along with Justin Tyler and Dominique Jones have all either previously coached or are currently assisting at Martins Ferry. One of the more successful former Panthers is Nate Alexander.
A Martins Ferry graduate, Alexander is in his ninth season as the head coach of Osceola High School in Kissimmee, Florida, winning state championships in both 2017 and 2019 while finishing runner-up in 2017.
This year’s team returned one starter and lost nine seniors from a championship season. They are currently No. 1 in Class 7A, District 6 as the postseason looms just around the corner.
It’s a lengthy list, but there are even more on the junior high and assistant levels, some that have moved on from coaching, or honed their craft outside the area, like Alexander.
All for the Love
Perkins returned to Barnesville to work as an assistant for head boys’ coach Matt Johnson before getting his first opportunity to run his team this season when he was named the girls’ head coach.
In his first season, the Shamrocks are closing in on the .500 mark at 7-11 and with a couple promising underclassmen, the future looks bright in western Belmont County.
Like Barr, Perkins owns his own business and is not a teacher, and that may be why it took him more than 20 years to finally land a head varsity position. School districts have eased up on their hiring practices in recent years, but prior to, if a teacher was interested in a position, a non-certified teacher wasn’t going to get the job, or retain it if they held it previously.
“I’ve always been in the system but obviously not from teaching,” Perkins said. “I think it may hurt some in trying to get the head job, but a lot of schools had that in their policy. Barnesville went away from it a couple of years ago and others are starting to follow.”
Barr ran into the same issues, but being self-employed, he also sets his own hours and can be available and at the school if needed. He noted Union Local changed its hiring policy around a decade ago, so he didn’t have to have a teaching certification to become the head coach.
“It doesn’t really affect me that much and my assistant (Nikki Gregor) is a teacher at the high school. She’s always there so if anything comes up, she’ll text me and let me know and handle it on that end.”
No one gets into coaching for the money, at least not on the high school and junior high levels. Even the paid coaches aren’t making bank. Perkins estimated that in his 22 years, he’s probably been paid for five seasons.
“There was a lot of volunteer work,” he said. “But you don’t do it for the paycheck. I like being around the kids and working with them, and I just love the game.”
