By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
Wynford’s long and proud tradition in basketball was all that was needed to get Mark Delaney’s attention and in turn Delaney got the attention of Wynford.
“I’m very humbled and honored to be able to be around such quality people, to be part of the coaches who have coached here,” Delaney said. “I truly mean it when I say this is a very special place as from a basketball standpoint. It means something to me and it means something to the community and it’s very rare to have that.”
The 2002 Clear Fork graduate and current athletics director and assistant principal at Heath in Licking County was approved as the next boys basketball coach at the Wynford school board meeting on Monday.
Delaney will teach physical education for grades 7 through 12 at Wynford. His overall coaching record at Fredericktown and Marion Local is 51-18. Delaney left coaching and took the job at Heath when his young daughter, 2-and-one-half-year-old Addison, required extensive surgery. He took the time away from coaching to focus on his daughter who is doing well in her recovery.
“I always knew I would get back into it (coaching). I didn’t expect it to be this quick,” Delaney said. “The tradition here is second to none. It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”
The opportunity stemmed from the Wynford tradition, a tradition that Delaney was well aware of even before he applied for the job even though he is neither a Wynford nor a Crawford County native. Delaney attended Ontario schools through the ninth grade and then transferred to Clear fork where he played on the Colts’ state championship team.
“The tradition, the basketball ‘aroma’ at Wynford has been unbelievable,” Delaney said. “Growing up, the battles between Joe Balogh and Rob Sheldon were all I knew. It made high school basketball that much more enjoyable. Rob Sheldon is one of the greats and one of the biggest names I knew growing up.”
Following his graduation at Clear Fork, Delaney attended and graduated from Ashland University. Prior to coaching at the high school level, he coached in college programs at Cedarville University, Northern State University in South Dakota, and Grace College in Indiana.
Delaney acknowledges this season will not be the norm for him or his program and he’ll have less of a hands-on approach than he would like early on because he will be under contract at Heath through the end of June.
“We’re going to be behind the ball according to my standards,” Delaney admitted. “We’re going to hit it full bore in July. It will be an unorthodox summer because of my situation as an administrator.”
Delaney said style-wise, what his team does will vary depending on his team and the teams they’ll be facing.
“I’m big on the strengths of my kids and trying to minimize weaknesses, I’m big on fundamentals and trying to work on our weaknesses,” Delaney said. “It (play) will depend on our kids and who we’re playing. I want to put our kids in the best position and control what we can control.”
Delaney has already met with players in the program all the way down through the elementary grades He says he will work on developing his program year-round at Wynford from the early grades on up.
Delaney follows Steve Mohr as the head coach at Wynford. Mohr stepped down because of his own health situation. He just the sixth coach in Wynford’s 50-year history following Jim Bauer, Bernie Witzmann, Rob Sheldon, Tim Ehresman and Mohr.