It was one of the hardest decisions of Josh Jakacki’s life.
The longtime Crestwood boys basketball coach has stepped down and — in what Jakacki said was an entirely separate decision — will be Kenston’s new coach.
Jakacki said he was originally planning on stepping away from coaching to spend more time with his family, particularly his two daughters who attend and compete in multiple sports for the Bombers. Then, the Kenston job opened up unexpectedly and there was the chance to coach and be close to his daughters.
Suddenly, Jakacki had a clear, if difficult, path in front of him. On one hand, ending his second stint with the Red Devils was brutally tough for Jakacki. Crestwood is his alma mater and the place he has spent the majority of his coaching life. Indeed, he still lives in the district.
“We didn’t take this decision lightly,” Jakacki said. “Crestwood is very near and dear to our hearts.”
“Josh is such a coach of character,” Red Devils athletic director Troy Spiker added. “I think that’s going to be the biggest obstacle to replace and that’s going to be a primary focus, I believe, for Crestwood in search of our next coach.”
Having made the difficult decision to step down at Crestwood, the decision to coach at Kenston was comparatively easy. Jakacki has spent decades teaching in the district. He’ll now get to coach his students. And Jakacki will have longtime assistant Bob Lieberth on his coaching staff, as well as his oldest son, Mason.
“Having the fact that it is kind of home away from home made it real easy,” Jakacki said. “There really wasn’t another job that we had our eyes on. Things just kind of happened, [it was] very fluid, and it was meant to be.”
How Josh Jakacki made the difficult decision to step down at Crestwood
For all the games the Red Devils won, including capturing Chagrin Valley Conference titles in each of the past two seasons, the missed games started to wear on Jakacki.
After having the chance to see all of his youngest son’s games at Crestwood as his high school coach, Jakacki missed a bunch of Trent’s college games, first at Baldwin Wallace, then at Hiram, because the Red Devils and Terriers frequently played at the same time.
“There were games that I missed of Trent’s because of the Wednesday, Saturday CVC schedule that we have,” Jakacki said. ‘I was fortunate that I was able to catch some of those games on live TV, but it became frustrating that we weren’t able to see as many as I felt like we could have.”
Jakacki said Red Devils athletic director Troy Spiker was “fantastic” in trying to make it work. Other schools were “awesome in terms of moving games” as well. But he still missed a number of Trent’s games and realized he didn’t want to miss a bunch of Calli and Lexie’s games as well. Although Calli, a senior, plays mostly in different seasons (soccer and track), Lexie, a freshman, is playing basketball.
Per Jakacki, “With her games being on Wednesdays and Saturdays, our CVC schedule being on Wednesdays and Saturdays, it just wasn’t going to be a situation where I was going to miss their stuff anymore.”
Jakacki said he had already made his decision to resign from Crestwood when the Kenston position came up.
“They were two separate things that just kind of happened at the same time,” Jakacki said. “They were independent of one another for sure, and it’s just crazy how the world works at times where one door closes and then another one opens, and you just kind of have no way of turning it down.”
Josh Jakacki reflects on an incredible second stint at Crestwood
Jakacki has spent a lifetime driving down Auburn and Bainbridge roads and State Route 44 — the roads that connect Crestwood and Kenston.
He has spent his entire head coaching career leading either the Bombers or the Red Devils, two programs that have particular meaning to him.
“I’ve been blessed to be at two different places with two stops at the same place,” Jakacki said. “That’s pretty unique.”
Jakacki made his head coaching debut with the Red Devils, spending six years leading his alma mater. He then spent eight years at Kenston, where he teaches. After a remarkably successful tenure with the Bombers, winning five league titles and posting a 132-43 record, Jakacki made the decision to return to his alma mater. That decision was largely about spending more time with his family — including coaching his sons, Mason and Trent, who both starred for the Red Devils.
When Jakacki arrived back in Mantua in 2015, he had won numerous league championships with the Bombers, but had yet to win one with the Red Devils.
That quickly changed.
His first championship at Crestwood came in 2016-2017, when Jordan Fabry and the Red Devils won 10 straight games to rally for a share of the Portage Trail Conference title, capped by a thrilling one-point victory over Mogadore.
“The most impressive thing when you look back at that season, we were [7-6] at one point after losing to [Woodridge] and the kids rallied,” Jakacki said. “We just made it a one game at a time [mindset], checking the box, just winning the day. And when we looked up at the standings, we had an opportunity to face mighty Mogadore at our place and a few balls bounced our way and Fabry was able to knock some free throws down late, but it was a fantastic environment. That was super exciting.”
One son, Mason, was a starter on that 2016-2017 championship team. Both played starring roles when the Red Devils captured their next title in 2019-2020, when they won 20 games, including a thrilling PTC finale against Garfield to clinch the championship.
As Jakacki’s youngest son, Trent, ventured to Baldwin Wallace and later Hiram, becoming one of the greatest scorers in Terriers history, Josh stayed home and led a massive rebuild. That included a one-win season, which would have been a winless season had the Red Devils not won an epic regular-season finale against Springfield. Dekota Johnson was just a freshman then, a developing star who helped guide Crestwood to Chagrin Valley Conference titles in each of the past two seasons.
“That 1-22 season was one of the more memorable [ones] on a positive note,” Jakacki said. “That might be deemed as one of the most humbling yet learning years I’ve ever had as a coach. [The] kids were driven, determined and kind of laid the groundwork to the success we had later when they easily could have just kind of packed it in and decided they wanted to do something else. They decided they wanted to hunker down and grind and make a special run here.”
Of the Red Devils’ 10 league championships in boys basketball, Jakacki has led four of those teams.
“He demands high output, which can be stressful on a young athlete,” Spiker said. “But what I believe Josh does a very good job at is balancing I’m going to ask a lot from you and I’m going to challenge you and I’m going to push you because you have the ability and capability as long as you’re coachable, but I’m also going to show you as hard as I push you, I’m going to show appreciation and passion and love and enthusiasm for you, which I believe is a big piece to his success as a basketball coach.”
It has been a satisfying time in Mantua, to say the least.
“The second stint was kind of a fairy tale,” Jakacki said. “We came back to do some things that we said we were going to do, and, fortunately, we had the right kids at the right time and the parents were pulled in the same direction and were super supportive.”
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: ‘We didn’t take this decision lightly’: Crestwood basketball coach Josh Jakacki steps down
Reporting by Jonah Rosenblum, Ravenna Record-Courier / Record-Courier
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
