For any coach, it is all about knowing when their time has come to step down. Garfield G-Men boys’ basketball Coach Andy Olesky decided his time was now, announcing that he would be stepping down as head coach on May 7.
“I think the timing of my decision aligns very well and personally and in terms of where the program is at,” Olesky said. “We just saw through a very talented senior class who got a lot of playing time the last several years so that last chapter of the program is over and it is time to give a chance for the next coach to take it over with a nice promising younger group.”
The 14-year coach ends his time with the boys’ basketball program as the winningest boys’ basketball coach in school history, having collected 164 coaching victories. According to Olesky, exiting the program with the most career coaching victories is a nice way to go out but it is also not what he wants to be remembered for.
“Throughout the course of my career at Garfield and coaching in general, my focus has always been to create lessons and memories for the kids. If that has a lasting impact more than the all-time wins leader, that means more to me than the wins,” he said.
Although Olesky will not be around the boys’ basketball team, he will remain in the Garrettsville School District as a fifth-grade language arts and social studies teacher. He said that as difficult as it is to step down, he is at ease with the state of the program with young talent emerging in the wake of graduating a large senior class.
For Olesky, the upcoming 2025-26 winter season will be the first time in 35 years his schedule will not be consumed with basketball, his winters having been dominated by the sport since he was 7-years old.
Olesky said his love for basketball began when his parents purchased for him a movie about NBA Hall-of-Famer Pete “Pistol Pete” Maravich. In addition to being inspired by watching the film, he added that he was drawn in by the competition, teamwork and athleticism of the sport.
“It not just skill, it is not just speed, it is not just agility, it is all of that stuff on top of the life lessons that you learn from basketball,” he noted. “You learn how to succeed with grace, you learn how to fail with grace.”
Olesky played basketball in the Akron Manchester School District and started his coaching career immediately after graduation, becoming the 7th grade boys coach in his freshman year of college. He credited former Manchester Coach Gene Schindewof for encouraging him to pursue coaching.
He added that the culture of the Manchester boys’ program significantly shaped his identity as a player and a coach.
“That is a hard-working culture, a hard-nosed culture, give 110% culture,” he said. “It is a toughness culture, and it is the expectation of winning culture. That is a very, very big impact on my life.”
He rose all the way up to head junior varsity coach while attending college and then became a varsity assistant at Waterloo High School, where he also earned his first teaching position following his graduation, serving under revered high school basketball Coach Jon Hercek for several years.
Olesky said that after his teaching position was eliminated due to budget cuts in 2011, he saw an opening at Garfield online and immediately pursued it.
“I was literally sitting in my classroom, I was on the Ohio High School Athletic Association website and I saw Garrettsville had a boys’ basketball opening. I thought to myself “I will send it in” and that is literally it,” he recalled. “Once I went there and interviewed, it was awesome.”
He acknowledged that the most he knew about Garfield came from the instances Waterloo competed against the G-Men in the old Portage Trail Conference. He added that he had heard mostly good things about the school. Upon arriving, he said that he was impressed by the rich history of boys’ basketball.
“My 14 years have had great people and that is what drew me to Garfield, that is what has caused me to call it my home and it continues to have great people and that is what makes Garfield so great,” he noted. “That is everything — the teachers, the other coaches and the employees and the kids; Garfield is just full of good people.”
