Pat Durham, who has been a coaching at some level since 1966, has announced at he is retiring as a head coach and will not be on the sidelines at Mansfield St. Peter’s next year.
To put that into perspective when Durham started coaching young people Lyndon Johnson was the President, the Beatles has just come to America two years earlier and it would be another three years before Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. Vince Lombardi was still coach of the Green Bay Packers and the New York Yankees marquee player was Mickey Mantle, not Derek Jeter.
St. Peters finished with a 13-10 record this past season and as runner up in the Mid-Buckeye Conference. Durham, 70, still has passion for the game, but he new it was time to step down. “It seemed like the time was right. At my age, a couple of minor health concerns, my daughter lives in Hawaii with her six children and her husband. I felt like the timing was right. I have enjoyed my years at St. Peter’s, as I did all of my coaching assignments,” he said.
While coaching Durham will see as many other games as any coach in the area, whether it be for scouting or just for the pleasure. He has attended the state tournament every year since the early 1960s.
He began his career as a junior high coach in Bellville in 1966. He severed as freshman and junior varsity basketball coach, assistant football coach, head boys’ and girls’ tennis coach and varsity baseball and before that junior varsity baseball coach at Clear Fork.
In that wealth of memories, Durham says it is the process and the people he met that he will remember most. “The entire process is what I remember. There are so many moments that it is hard to pick any that are more important than the others,” he said.
He became Clear Fork’s head basketball coach at the tail end of the 1981 season and remained there through 1986. Served as head coach at South Central from 1987 through 2001 and again from 2007 to 2009 and then was at St. Peter’s the last four years. He compiled 347 wins in his career, including a lot of big ones.
“There have been some big wins. I remember a win over an undefeated Lodi Cloverleaf team when I was at Clear Fork. We won six league championships when I was at South Central and those seasons were special,” said the veteran coach. “Some of the wins I had at St. Peter’s, including the win this year at Mansfield Christian were pretty special. The entire process of coaching and relating to groups of kids over the years that’s what kept me going,” said Durham.
The ultimate compliment for a coach is found in what your players say about you. One former player said, “He made me believe that I could be better than I ever thought I could be.” And another said he thought the coach was good for “three or four extra wins for any team he coached.” Doug Ute, Clear Fork’s all-time leading scorer calls Durham the greatest basketball strategist he has ever known.
He may have stepped down as a head coach, but he is probably not done with basketball. “I may end up on someone’s bench next year. I really haven’t decided. A lot of that depends on health. I don’t want to give the impression that I am ill or anything, but like I said there are a couple of things that I am working over. If those are minor or non existent there is probably a good chance I will be an assistant somewhere,” said Durham.
The thing about Pat Durham is he is a great coach, but an even better man.
The ultimate compliment for a coach is found in what your players say about you. “He made me believe that I could be better than I ever thought I could be.” And another said he thought the coach was good for “three or four extra wins for any team he coached.”
After years of toil and sweat behind radio station microphones, longtime broadcaster, Jeff Swank joined the new generation of sports followers on the web.
Swank launched his internet radio station with nothing more than some wire, a box with some knobs and switches, and an itch to do much more than just scratch the surface of everything sports.
Richland Source is proud to introduce Jeff as a writer focused on high school sports. He will contribute a weekly column and analysis of a featured game of the week from one of our area high schools.
In addition to his work at Richland Source, Jeff provides complete high school sports coverage for over 70 Ohio schools at his web site, http://www.swankonsports.net76.net/.
