GALION — The Lady Tigers are in search of a new basketball coach, following Shani Rush’s decision to leave the sidelines after four seasons.

“After 24 years of coaching basketball at the high school and college level, I decided to start the next chapter of my life. Basketball has been a big part of my life,” Rush wrote on Twitter last week.

She has been a teacher in the Galion City School District since August 2002 and took over the basketball program in the summer of 2018. Previously, she was the head coach at Mansfield St. Peter’s for four seasons.

“I’ve been coaching for a long time and my kids are becoming more active in sports, especially my two younger ones. It’s just been hard to juggle all the roles that I have. I’m missing some of their stuff and want to be there more for them,” she said.

Rush has three daughters who are entering the fourth, sixth and 11th grades.

“They kept me busy. I kept on looking back, thinking will I be able to coach that long? It’s just a lot of time to put in in the summer,” Rush said.

Last season the team finished 1-13 in the Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference and 5-18 overall.

“The last four years I think we got better each year. This past year we were plagued with injuries and some things we could not control. But we won our first MOAC game (38-28 over Ontario) ever and that was a big accomplishment,” Rush said.

“It’s been challenging and taken a lot of time and effort with COVID and the numbers we have in our program.”

Building a program is difficult when you’re not winning but the future looks bright for the Lady Tigers, according to Rush.

“I thought our youth numbers were excellent this year. Our fifth-grade team won the league championship. Our third and fourth grade team finished second. Our sixth-grade team definitely improved, and our seventh-grade group is really putting a lot of time into the program,” she said.

After a standout career at Galion High School, Rush graduated in 1993 and earned a scholarship to play basketball at Ashland University, where she was a three-year starter and a captain for the Lady Eagles. She finished her career as AU’s all-time assists leader.

Her prep coaching career has been rewarding.

“I really wanted to be a college basketball coach. I did that for like four years and my mom got sick and I moved back home, and I landed my job in Galion for the first time,” she said.

A move to St. Peter’s was next, where she stayed for 12 years and enjoyed success.

“It’s just a basketball program. We were very successful, and they take a lot of pride in it. I spent a year at Ontario as an assistant also and then went back to Galion.”

After nearly a quarter-century coaching Rush knows what she’ll miss the most.

“I’m going to miss the relationships with my players. I coached some awesome girls. I still talk to them today, just building that bond and I have tried to be a good role model for them. They can see a working mom who is also coaching,” she said.

“Just that relationship piece is what I’m really going to miss. As a coach I just wanted to be an influence in somebody’s life.”

Teaching the game also has its rewards.

“When a kid puts a lot of time into something, and they’ll show up every day, you can see their development from their freshman year till their senior year. You see all the hard work that they put into it. When they finally achieve that, you helped encourage them through their journey. I get so proud of them.”

Balancing her role as a parent and a coach also factored into her decision to step away.

“Getting home late at night and my kids have homework to do, it’s 9:30 at night. The time you spend watching film, doing scouting reports and practice plans, youth stuff and fundraising. There’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle,” Rush said.

“I have met some amazing people. Now it’s time to sit in the stands and watch my girls play the game that gave me so much.”