Category Archives: Feature

Feature, Sports

New coaching rule brings major changes to winter sports season

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Trevor Ing / Editor-In-Chief

     At the beginning of every school year, teachers may retire, and teachers step up and take higher roles or new teachers are hired in replacement. The same goes for coaches of different sports. 

    This year, Stow saw the addition of five new sports coaches. Girls’ and boys’ basketball, girls’ soccer, baseball and bowling. 

     Recently, there has been a huge emphasis on high school sports. A student’s coach can quickly become the most important teacher they have, and when that teacher walks the hallways of their own school, it may mean more to the student than expected.

     Many of these coaches have been at Stow for many years, so what brought about this change?

     When figuring out the right person for the job, the Athletic Department first needs to figure out what exactly they want to have as a priority. Recently, the school has introduced a new emphasis on hiring coaches who are teachers at the school before reaching out to the community. 

     “We emphasize that if they’re walking the halls, we want to get them coaching,” Athletic Director, Cyle Feldman said.

     With the coaching contract being one year, the athletic department had enough time to communicate and decide on teachers in the building who would be better suited to fit the needs of the student athletes. In Feldman’s mind, “you always are looking for what’s best for kids.”

     A huge component of the change was that each coach needs to understand what’s happening in the classroom as well as on the field. For example, there was a problem with volleyball matches ending late, which caused many athletes to be unable to get all their work finished without sacrificing the much needed sleep to recover from a big game. A teacher in the building has better understanding and is able to communicate much better to other teachers if problems like this occur.

     “If somebody’s walking our halls, we want them to be able to see our kids during the day and have an influence on them, mentoring them and communicating with them,” Feldman said.

     One big coaching change that received a lot of attention was the replacement of Bob Podges, the previous girls’ basketball coach, who had been coaching for 32 years. Math teacher Andrew O’Keefe will be taking Podges’ position as the new girls head coach. O’Keefe has been coaching at CVCA for the past eight years. O’Keefe posted a 137-65 record in eight seasons as CVCA’s girls’ basketball coach, winning six league titles, three district championships and four Coach of the Year honors.

     Similar to O’Keefe, Podges coached 12 league Players of the Year, named Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association Division I Coach of the Year back in 2017, earned league Coach of the Year 12 times and was named the All-Ohio Northeast Inland District Division 1 Coach of the Year three times.

Continued on website…

     So this begs the question, why not continue the contract of a coach who has such an incredible legacy? 

     According to Feldman, it came down to two things. The first being the emphasis on having a coach be one of the administrators in the school to better mentor their athletes, and the second being how much of a relationship O’Keefe was building with the younger generation.

     “One of our big goals in all our programs is aligning with the youth, and Kimpton, and the early returns on coach O’Keefe are great,” Feldman said.

     A big problem with basketball, along with other sports at Stow, is how many students are advancing CVCA or Walsh instead of the Stow because of athletics. One of the reasons students were going to CVCA instead of Stow was because they knew about O’Keefe prior to going to high school.

     While coaching at CVCA, O’Keefe felt a disconnect between himself and the community at Stow. At the time, both head coach positions were taken at Stow, so O’Keefe didn’t see a path where he would become the head coach while working under Coach Dave Close. He was given the opportunity to become a Head Coach at CVCA and took it despite it not being his home school.

     “I remember my first pep rally after getting hired at CVCA, and I just stood there in the gym, and I was just like, ‘man.’ It just wasn’t the same for me. It was hard because I wasn’t coaching here anymore,” O’Keefe said.

     O’Keefe also felt how much he lost with not having his athletes in his classroom. He felt like a huge part of how he coaches was gone because he lost that ability to connect.

     “I lost that relationship that gets developed in the gym. I think it’s completely different than the classroom because in the classroom, kids are working on something that they have to do; whereas in the gym, they’re working on something that they love,” O’Keefe said.

     When administrators gave O’Keefe the opportunity to become the new girls’ head coach, he stepped up for the job hoping to follow Podges’ legacy the best he could.

     “They saw me as a qualified candidate, and they asked me if I’d be interested in applying for the position, and I did,” O’Keefe said.

     Besides the controversy, O’Keefe is excited for this year and thinks the team will perform well. O’Keefe was not just handed the job solely because he was a teacher who applied.

      “I’m really excited to be back. I think the girls are excited, I think families are excited, and we’re looking forward to the season,” O’Keefe said.

Source: Stohion/ Maya Cooper

Girls basketball coach Andrew O’Keefe coaches the 11/15 scrimmage. 

2024-2025, Community, Feature, Front/Home

BSU Club

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Mira Woodward / Business Manager

      Black Student Union is a new club now being offered at the high school. Belonging to a club is the difference between going through high school and being involved in high school. For some people, it is hard to find a club that is diverse enough, which may drive some people to start their own clubs so others do not have to feel that longing for a group in which they feel comfortable being themselves. That is exactly what students senior Bryana Arnold and junior Rhyan Todd strived to do. 

      Their first meeting was on Jan. 28 after school in the library, and students were treated to free pizza, snacks, drinks and played fun games in order to get to know each other. 

     Martin Poder, one of the BSU advisors said Arnold and Todd wanted to start some community because they felt the student population was “a little bit scattered among the school” and there was not a place for them to get together. 

      Their goal for the meeting was to “break bread and socialize with each other. They also wanted to talk about doing some community service projects, some social events together,” Poder said.

      Poder also talked about how Arnold and Todd wanted to feel a sense of togetherness because “they felt there were a lot of Black students throughout the school, and they haven’t talked or communicated with one another, and they want to kind of bring it together.”

      Just like any new club, this one went through a long process to be officiated: finding a teacher administrator, running it by the Board of Education and promoting the club and its meetings. 

     “Rhyan and Bryana–I’ve known them for the last three years–came to my room a couple months ago, probably in November, saying they wanted to start Black Student Union. They asked if myself and Coach Sheppert would be advisors for it,” Poder said.

     While Poder agreed to advise the club, he wanted to be able to sit down with the girls to find out what their goals and objectives were. 

     “That was how it kind of started, and then we got Bryce [Sheppert] involved,” Poder said. 

      Arnold said one of the goals they want for Black students is to have a “safe space for students to connect, grow and thrive.”

      Both girls made sure to stay focused on the purpose of the organization by creating a vision for which they will use as a guide for the running of things: “Our mission is to promote unity and academic success, cultural education and community engagement while advocating for equality and inclusion within our school and community.”

      One of the first Black Student Unions was founded back in 1966 at San Francisco State University. From there many schools adapted one in order to make students feel more comfortable in their schools. 

     “We will meet once a month to discuss relevant topics, plan events and build a community for cultural celebration, events such as Black History Month, programs, cultural showcases, and we were trying to do guest speakers. We also want to incorporate community service projects into it such as partnering with local organizations to make a meaningful impact on the community,” Arnold said. 

      The Black Student Union club’s name may stray some students away from joining; however, club members have made it clear that anyone who wants to be supportive of the Black community in their school can attend any of the meetings.

    “It’s a Black Student Union, but that doesn’t mean that it’s strictly for black students. Anyone is welcome–[it’s an] open door,” adviser Bryce Sheppert said.