Jeff LaDow has learned a lot about coaching high school volleyball in only two years since becoming a teacher in the Berkshire School District. He will put good use to what he has learned, having been announced as the new head coach of the Badger boys’ volleyball team on June 17.
“I heard that there were some very good candidates up for the position, so I am honored to be chosen as the head volleyball coach,” LaDow said. “I know that I am filling some big shoes. Tim Percic started the program from the ground up and ran it for five years. It was a privilege to work under him and I look forward to taking over the program that he created.”
The first-year coach inherits the position of head coach from his predecessor, Tim Percic, who has stepped down from his post after five years. LaDow spent the last two spring seasons working as an assistant coach on Percic’s staff, so he will be a familiar face to a team that is returning eight players from the 2026 season.
In two years, LaDow has not only worked as an assistant boys’ volleyball coach on Percic’s staff but also as the Badger girls’ freshmen volleyball coach in 2024 and then as the middle school girls’ volleyball coach in 2025.
According to him, his time spent with the girls’ volleyball program has been invaluable as he learned from Berkshire girls’ varsity volleyball Coach Joan Prots in his first year and then experienced what it was like to be a head coach when he ran the middle school girls’ program.
“I got a sneak peek of what it is like to step into a program with all new coaching last year when I coached the middle school girls’ volleyball at Berkshire,” he noted. “It was rough out of the gate getting to know them, letting them get to know me, figuring out how we can work together instead of butting heads, setting a goal we all wanted to get to at the end.”
For the 2006 Cardinal graduate, it has been a sweet homecoming since he returned to Geauga County two years ago after studying for his Master’s Degree in data analysis and teaching while living in Utah.
A three-sport athlete during his high school days, LaDow became interested in boys’ volleyball during his college years, as each summer when he returned home, he looked for an extracurricular activity to do and began playing boys’ volleyball at Mineral Lake Park over the summers.
After he transferred to Kent State University to continue his college education, he joined the Golden Flashes boys’ club volleyball team.
When LaDow completed his degree, he taught at several stops across Ohio, including Columbus and Zanesville, and even ventured out of state for a teaching position.
He said that he yearned to return to his home Geauga County and found a teaching position in the Berkshire School District that suited him and was hired as the fourth-grade math teacher.
“There was a curriculum that was really appealing to me so when we got back to Ohio, I looked up schools that had that curriculum and Berkshire was one of them,” he added “I said ‘That would be a really cool district to get in early in their new curriculum and go with that and bring my kids along because I know that the curriculum is great.’”
Once LaDow returned home and was hired at Berkshire, he was recommended by Berkshire girls’ volleyball assistant Coach Brooke Raeburn to apply for an assistant coaching position on Prots’ staff.
He was hired as the freshmen girls’ coach and led the team to a 14-4 season, which impressed Athletic Director Brian Hiscox enough to encourage him to speak with Percic about a potential role on his staff.
“I reached out to him, and Tim really liked me on the phone, and I really liked him so we thought it would be a good fit, so we gave it a shot and it was a really good fit,” noted LaDow.
Although it is LaDow’s first head coaching role for a varsity program, he is eager to maintain the standards that Percic established as he built the boys’ volleyball program and looks forward to maintaining those standards for the 2027 season.
“Having those eight kids who already know the program, they know how to get ready for games, what games look like, and hopefully they can lead the team that does show up and let them know how the program works,” he said.
