MANSFIELD, Ohio – After years of leading basketball teams on the hardwood as a player and a coach, Richland County native Mark DeLaney is leading in a different way.
After spending a season as basketball coach at Wynford High School in Bucyrus, DeLaney stepped down and accepted a position as Mansfield Christian Secondary School principal. The decision was made official May 13.
Leaving the sport, however, was not easy, DeLaney said. In fact, he said he wasn’t interested at first.
But after consideration, the thought of being “a light in a dark place” and investing in those “who will go out and share the gospel” led him to his decision.
“Being in this role, I am still coaching,” DeLaney said. “No, it’s not basketball, but you’re still coaching and leading the students and the staff – I think it’s more or less just God turning me to a little bit higher calling.”
A 2002 graduate of Clear Fork High School, DeLaney has made a name for himself among Richland County sports fans. During his senior year, he led the Colts to a Division III state basketball title and was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
After high school, he played basketball for a year at Ohio Wesleyan University before transferring to Ashland University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 2006. He then received his master’s degree in 2009 from Northern State University in South Dakota, where he was an assistant to coaching legend Don Meyer.
Before Wynford and MCS, DeLaney coached at Marion Local High School in Maria Stein and Fredericktown High School, both of which he also was athletic director, and served as AD and assistant principal at Heath High School.
“I grew up in Mansfield,” said DeLaney, who was a student at Ontario through ninth grade. “And even graduating from Clear Fork, which isn’t too far away, I truly love Mansfield.”
According to Mansfield Christian Superintendent Dr. Cy J. Smith, that passion and familiarity is part of why MCS reached out to DeLaney.
“To find a local person like Mark, who is an up-and-coming administrator and already lives in the area and already is pretty connected, who has roots here and family in both Ontario and Bellville, that’s pretty unique,” Smith said. “We chose to go his direction for a lot of reasons, but that certainly was one of the things that really interested us.”
What also was clear to Smith was that DeLaney had a fire for Christian education, and, after being a part of public school, coaching and other endeavors, DeLaney was ready to answer God’s calling.
“When your heart’s here, your family’s here, you just really knock it out, and we have a lot of confidence he’s going to do that,” Smith said of DeLaney.
MCS has 550 students in total from kindergarten through twelfth grade and roughly 240 at the Secondary School, according to DeLaney.
“The great thing about this place is we can influence and get our hands into this 35-mile radius and not just focus kind of on our community – where our local school district is,” he said. “We have families in here from Mount Vernon, Ashland, Crestline, Shelby, and it’s really neat to be part of a community like that.”
DeLaney’s journey, however, hasn’t always been about basketball and education. In 2011, he and his wife, Kim, were challenged when their daughter, Addyson Grace, was born with a urea cycle disorder – a rare mutation found in only one in 800,000 babies.
The mutation lets high levels of ammonia to bypass the liver into the body, which can cause brain damage.
“With all the hardship and everything that my wife and I, my family, and everyone we’re close to went through with us, once we were able to understand the sovereignty of God, it honestly was the greatest thing that has ever happened to me – because it has deepened my relationship with Jesus,” DeLaney said. “And without Him, I would have not been able to go through it.”
Once he accepted that, DeLaney said his outlook on life changed and he became a better person.
“Now, I’m at the point where I don’t feel sorry for my daughter, I don’t feel sorry for myself or my wife, because the gift of life is something we take for granted every single day,” he said.
Addyson, who will turn 4 years old in November, is doing well, he said. Moreover, DeLaney and his wife are expecting another daughter.
“There was a 25 percent chance our child would have the same mutation as Addyson,” DeLaney said, adding that he and his wife relied on their faith to make it through the trying time. “We just really wanted to give it to Him and have Him prepare us for whatever journey He wanted us to take.”
To their delight, the DeLaneys recently found out that not only does their expected child not the same disorder as Addyson, but that the new baby won’t be a carrier either.
“There was a lot of time spent in prayer, and there have been hundreds – and I mean hundreds – of people praying for this,” DeLaney said. “And the Bible is very clear: when you have a group of people praying, He listens.
“That’s not saying it will happen every time, because He knows what’s best for us, but it’s just reassures the power of prayer.”
The new baby is due around New Year’s Eve.
“Being in this role, I am still coaching,” Mark DeLaney said. “No, it’s not basketball, but you’re still coaching and leading the students and the staff – I think it’s more or less just God turning me to a little bit higher calling.”
