Josh Jakacki will once again experience a homecoming of sorts. The Crestwood Red Devils boys’ basketball coach announced he would be stepping down from his post after 10 years and returning to coach at Kenston on May 12.
“At some point the first time I left to go to Crestwood, it was unique because we had young kids, I was not as present as I would have liked to be due to their age,” Jakacki said. “Just realized I had done what we had come to do at Crestwood, so I felt like it was time for me to step down there.”
It will be the second time that Jakacki steps down from the Crestwood boys’ basketball program to coach at Kenston, the school district where he works as a fourth-grade teacher.
The 23-year head coach leaves the Crestwood program after leading the Red Devil boys to consecutive Chagrin Valley Conference Valley Division titles, capturing the league banner outright in the 2023-24 campaign and sharing it with conference rival Kirtland last year. According to Jakacki, he can rest easy knowing that he has laid the foundation of the Crestwood boys’ program, setting up the next Crestwood coach for immediate success.
“The program is used to winning, they have become accustomed to success,” he noted. “There are great kids in that program. I think our youth program has some fantastic players that are coming up. Whoever gets the opportunity for the job is certainly going to have a unique challenge ahead of them; it is a good spot to be in.”
Jakacki said that ending his tenure of coaching Crestwood boys’ basketball was not a matter of if but simply a matter of when.
He acknowledged that upon his decision to resign after the 2024-25 season, he was content with taking some time off from coaching, but his timing coincided with Kenston needing a new boys’ basketball coach and Jakacki said the fit was perfect.
He added that his latest coaching change lines up perfectly as he will once again coach in a school district where he has children attending.
“It would not have made any logistical sense for me to try to coach somewhere else with my daughters being at Kenston and wanting to not miss any of their stuff so it would defeat the purpose of our decision-making,” Jakacki said.
After enjoying a second act with the Crestwood program, Jakacki will do the same for the Bombers, previously serving as their head coach for eight years and compiling a 131-45 record before returning to Mantua.
Although his time with the Red Devils boys’ basketball program is over, Jakacki will still be staying close to home as he has done for the last 25 years, having had the benefit of coaching high school on the strip of State Route 422.
“It is pretty unique,” he said. “It is not what you intentionally sign up for, but God has a weird way of making things come full circle and bring other opportunities before you and I am just really thankful to have the opportunity to be in two great spots that are very close to one another.”
Jakacki said that his entire coaching staff will be joining him at Kenston, including his son, Mason, who served as his junior varsity coach last year. The Jakacki coaching tree will expand, as former Crestwood standout Trent will be joining his father’s coaching staff after finishing his collegiate career at Hiram college, where he joined his father in the 1,000-point scorers’ club for the Terrier men’s basketball program.
“We are really blessed to have a fantastic staff that is going to really work hard for these kids and be the arteries to the community and that outreach will be important. I could not be more blessed to have them along for the ride,” Jakacki said.
For Jakacki, having the chance to coach at Crestwood his alma matter one time was special but having the chance to return to the program after eight years at Kenston gave him an opportunity to finish what he started. He credited his eight years at Kenston for helping him grow and be the coach he was when he returned to the Red Devils’ program for the second time and rebuilding the program into a formidable Portage County contender.
“To learn and grow here and then to go back and take the knowledge that I gained and give that back to the community, the people and the program is super special and something that I can’t really put into words,” he said.
