LEXINGTON — Ron Schaub has a little more free time on his hands these days, but Lexington’s longtime tennis coach hasn’t slowed down all that much.
Schaub quietly stepped away as Lexington’s girls tennis coach before the start of the 2022-23 school year, vacating a position he had held since 1994. He will continue as the boys coach in the spring.
“I was having some health issues … so I had to step back and get those taken care of and now I feel a lot better,” said Schaub, who was inducted into the Ohio Tennis Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2017. “I also just felt like it was time.”
Jansen Webster took over the girls program in the fall. Lady Lex finished third in the Ohio Cardinal Conference behind three-time defending champ Wooster and runner-up Ashland.
Lady Lex won 14 consecutive OCC titles from 2003 to 2016 and another in 2018 under Schaub’s tutelage. What’s more, the girls program won Ohio Tennis Coaches Association team tournament state championships in 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011 and 2012.
Shaub doubled up during the 2012-13 school year as the girls team won the OTCA team title in the fall and the boys team won the state crown the following spring.
The boys program has won four consecutive OCC titles and 15 overall since the conference’s inception in the fall of 2003. The Minutemen have a pair of OTCA team tournament state titles to their credit, winning the Division I crown in 2004 to go with the Division II title in 2013.
The boys finished fourth at the OTCA state tournament each of the past two seasons and should be in contention for a Final Four spot again during the upcoming spring season.
“I think we’re going to have a really good guys team,” Schaub said. “I’m going to coach the guys in the spring and we’ll see how that goes.
“Hopefully we can get to state. I’m going to give it a try and we’ll see what happens after that.”
In addition to his high school coaching responsibilities, Schaub is still the teaching pro at the Lakewood Racquet Club. He’s held the position since 1982.
So what bring him back year after year?
“I love to see kids compete,” Schaub said. “As any coach, it’s really cool to see kids have a passion for something and really work at their trade.
“We’ve been fortunate to have a lot of good players and a lot of good teams and the kids get pumped up to play on a good team and they get pumped up to see what they can do individually. I really enjoy seeing that.”
And, Schaub said, the future is bright.
“We’ve got some young kids who are coming up who are pretty good,” Schaub said. “I look forward to working with them.”
