Any time Mount Union University men’s basketball Coach Mike Fuline has started as a new head coach, he has not needed a lengthy adjustment period. The former Ravenna Ravens boys’ assistant coach etched his name in Purple Raiders’ history by becoming the winningest coach in program history this season when his squad defeated Ohio Athletic Conference foe Otterbein University on Jan. 4.
“It was a great accomplishment,” Fuline told The Weekly Villager on March 21. “We have been fortunate to have a lot of really great players and make no mistake about it, you are only as good as your talent, and we have been fortunate that a lot of local Northeast Ohio guys have come and played for us at Mount Union.”
In only 14 seasons with the Purple Raiders, Fuline has posted a 262-114 coaching record, three OAC tournament championships, four OAC regular season titles and a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III runner-up finish in the 2022-23 season.
After graduating from Akron Manchester High School as a two-year varsity starter on the boys’ basketball team, Fuline arrived in Portage County when he attended Kent State University to study for his teaching degree.
According to him, while doing a teaching practicum at an elementary school in Kent, he met Becky Grube, the wife of then men’s basketball head coach Mike Grube. He said that he had expressed a desire to begin coaching basketball and Mrs. Grube put him in touch with then Ravens boys’ basketball coach Mark Kinsley.
At the age of 19, Fuline’s first high school coaching job was the head freshmen coach at Ravenna High School for the 1996-97 season. After only one year, Fuline was promoted to lead assistant on Kinsley’s varsity staff.
“We just had a great relationship and a great understanding of each other,” the 14-year coach noted. “I think he liked some of the ideas that I would bring forward to him. He gave me all of the defensive responsibilities and scouts for those and the game plans, so he was a huge part of my development as a coach.”
Fuline’s stint at Ravenna was short-lived as he was there for only three years before following Kinsley to Green High School and spent four more years alongside Kinsley before he netted his first head coaching job.
“Being able to be with Mark Kinsley, who went on to have a great coaching career, that is where you sharpened your teeth,” Fuline said. “You had to play against Stow and Cuyahoga Falls and all of those really great teams and I loved every second of it.
He returned to Portage County to become the new head coach at Rootstown High School in 2003 and got his team off to a fast start winning an Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III sectional title. In his second season, Rootstown captured the Portage County League championship and also an OHSAA Division III district banner, earning the honor of being named the OHSAA Division III’s Co-Coach of the Year.
In only two years at the helm, Fuline’s team recorded a 36-10 record.
“It was an unbelievable place to coach, and I really thought I was going to be there forever,” he said. “It was such a great community and everything I thought I always wanted and when you have really good teams, opportunities arise that are really hard to turn down. I had a passion for basketball but that is when I really fell in love with the coaching part of it.”
Fuline’s time at Rootstown ended early when he landed the head coaching job at Massillon Jackson High School prior to the 2005-06 season.
Upon arriving at Massillon Jackson, he once again hit the ground running leading the Polar Bears to a 95-42 record in six years, with the 2009-10 squad capturing the OHSAA Division I state title and winning the Federal League banner in his final two seasons, including being also named Federal League Coach of the Year in his final two seasons.
Fuline’s ascension in Northeast Ohio basketball eventually earned him looks from collegiate programs and he became Mount Union’s new men’s basketball coach in the 2011-2012 season.
Despite being a newcomer to college basketball, Fuline enjoyed another quick start and in only his third season, the Purple Raiders clinched the OAC regular season title and then in the following season, they won only their second OAC tournament in program history en route to advancing to the NCAA Division III Sweet Sixteen.
No matter where Fuline has restarted as a coach, he has quickly had his finger on the pulse of his squads. According to him, he has always preached family at any place he has been, and his teams have usually instantly bought into sacrificing for each other to achieve a higher goal.
