Filling the shoes of longtime Crestwood Red Devils boys’ basketball Coach Josh Jakacki is no easy feat for anyone. Andrew Mertz will attempt to carry the torch, having been approved as Jakacki’s successor by the Crestwood Board of Education on June 27.
“I am very excited for the opportunity,” the first-year coach said. “I have had most of these guys since they were in second, third or fourth grade so I know all of these guys very well. I know their families very well, so it is seemed natural for me to take this position when Josh left.”
The Red Devils are hiring their new coach from within their own ranks by tapping Mertz, who has served as an assistant coach on the middle school boys’ team for the last three years and has also been coaching at various levels in the program since arriving in Mantua 10 years ago. He takes over for a longtime stalwart in Jakacki, who announced his resignation on May 12 to become the head coach of the Kenston Bombers boys’ basketball team.
According to Mertz, as soon as Jakacki’s resignation became official, the only issue that would prevent him from applying for the position was whether he could balance being a head basketball coach with his daytime responsibilities as an engineer. He said that what ultimately spurred him to push forward for the job was knowing the support he would have with several of his coaching colleagues in the program as well as his family.
As far as Mertz was concerned, it was important for someone to step up to lead in Jakacki’s wake who was familiar with the program and had no designs on this coaching stint being a stopgap.
“I thought it was better for the program long term to have somebody who is willing to commit to this for a pretty decent amount of time and stay involved in the youth program,” he added. “The youth program is a huge part of the varsity program being successful and when you have a new coach every year, it is very hard for that youth program to really catch wind and maintain itself.”
Although it is Mertz’s first time serving as a head basketball coach, he inherits a team that he knows very well, having coached those players when they were in middle school, and that familiarity will allow him to hit the ground running.
“I have played against these guys all summer for the past couple of years,” he noted. “I have played open gym with them all summer round so I have followed them up quite a bit from the basketball standpoint. I don’t see it being a huge adjustment at all. I am aware of what we have.”
He acknowledged that his first season at the helm will involve coaching a team without many upperclassmen but said that he sees a lot of fire in his team that will surprise outsiders.
Mertz said he is appreciative of having the opportunity of working in a program that was run by a coach like Jakacki and has taken a lot of his teachings to heart.
“Josh was a very good person to learn from. I will take a lot of stuff that I learned from him with me and as I mentioned he will be a huge tool in my success here because I plan to lean on him quite a bit in this process,” Mertz noted.
Although Mertz arrived in Mantua just 10 years ago, it already has become a second home to him and his family as the community possesses many similarities to his hometown of St. Clairsville. Ironically, Mertz’s alma matter’s school name was also the Red Devils.
As soon as Mertz moved to Mantua, he immediately became involved in coaching Crestwood athletics at the youth level, including baseball, basketball, and baseball.
His previous coaching experience was at summer basketball camps during his college years at Ohio University, but he became much more involved when his children started competing in youth athletics when they lived in Mentor.
“I think that some of the best aspects of coaching are just being able to see kids grow,” Mertz said. “I like the challenge of how every kid learns things differently and every kid has a different home life, and every kid is in a different situation. So, they are all individual projects and they all need to figure out things differently and that is something that I am passionate about doing.”
As much as Mertz is relishing his first opportunity as Crestwood’s new boys’ basketball coach, he is also looking forward to coaching his own children as his eldest son will most likely play on the junior varsity squad this year as a sophomore while his second oldest is also just one year away from reaching high school.
