Southern Ohio Sports Authority is presented by OhioHealth.
CHILLICOTHE — During the first three years of Matt Hoops’ tenure as Unioto’s head basketball coach, the Shermans won a total of 16 games.
Hoops, who took over the program in 2007, went 7-15, 1-20 and 8-12 to start his career.
Needless to say, things weren’t going as planned … on paper at least.
It’s been said that failure is not the opposite of success, but rather part of it. And since that 2009-10 season, success is all that Hoops and company has ever known.
14 seasons have now gone by since that year and Hoops’ Shermans are 234-87 during that time. It’s a remarkable turnaround that features eight SVC titles — four of which were Gold Ball seasons — six sectional crowns and three district championships.
And the key to it happening was blood, sweat, tears and a change in the smallest of details, or in coach speak, “the little things.”
CREDIT: Cindy Hoops/SOSA
“Once you start winning some games and just start changing the culture … making the little things important, changing what you’re wearing, what the locker room looks like, how you make your kids feel important as people, not just as players, what happens is that your really good players buy in at a higher level,” Hoops said. “But just as important, you also bring on some other players, who maybe were on the fence about things, that now know they’re a part of something special. Once that starts, it’s contagious.”
Hoops has built a powerhouse program within Southeast Ohio. There’s no denying that. And through that process, the eight-time SVC Coach of the Year has become synonymous with Unioto basketball.
However, like all other journeys, life can get in the way, families will grow, and factors you can’t control can begin to cause a shift.
There’s always a time and a place to call it quits. For Hoops, that time is now.
After a 17-year stint with his alma mater, he’s stepping down from his position, leaving a humongous pair of shoes to fill in the decision’s aftermath.
“There’s a lot of factors,” Hoops said. “Some I can control and some I can’t. Your family always plays a role in it. Christina and I have always talked about what it would be like to have our boys [Newton and Blake] play without pressure. They’d never admit to that, but there is pressure. So to be able to just sit back and be coached by others, for Blake’s senior year, it’s a time we feel good about just being parents, going to the game and not having to have Blake hear my voice all the time.
“After winning 18 games this past season and winning the league, it makes it hard to make this decision,” Hoops said. “But it also lets me feel good that whoever takes it over, they’re going to have great pieces to work with.”
The Hoops’ family winters, all of the sudden, have now become less stressful. However, the fall will not change.
Matt will continue to coach the school’s football team. Since he took over the program in 2020, Unioto is 27-14. They’re coming off a season in which they won the school’s first SVC title in 25 years alongside its first Gold Ball in 42 seasons.
That’s just before the basketball program finished 18-5 this past winter. Hoops, subsequently, was the SVC’s Coach of the Year in both sports.
Obviously, coaching both basketball and football hasn’t hindered either of the program’s upward trajectories.
“Since I’ve started coaching both sports, this is something that my wife, Christina, and I have always talked about,” Hoops said. “Once you do something for 26 years, I don’t know if there’s ever a ‘right’ time to [resign]. But I can’t continue to coach both forever. I do know that I didn’t want to make this decision when the [basketball] program was down or when we weren’t going to be as good. That’s not the case. We won the league in seventh and eighth grades, we had a really good freshman team, and we won the JV and varsity leagues. So that time isn’t coming anytime soon and I wouldn’t have wanted to walk away at that time anyways.”
Hoops’ basketball coaching journey began in 1998, where he coached Unioto’s freshman level. In 2000, he was an assistant under varsity head coach Jeff Lisath, before taking over the school’s JV program from 2000-03.
From 2004-05, he was Westfall’s head coach before taking a year off during the 2006-07 season. Then, in 2007, he began his storied tenure as Unioto’s head coach.
CREDIT: Derrick Webb/SOSA
He’s a five-time District Coach of the Year, was the 2014-15 Division II State Coach of the Year, and is the Shermans’ winningest basketball coach in school history — boys or girls.
Additionally, he led Unioto on a conference record 69-game winning streak from 2014-2018.
Now, he steps aside from the hardwood with a career coaching record, between Unioto and two years at Westfall, of 273-163.
“There are too many memories, people and games to remember that if I would just name one that stuck out, I’d be shortchanging so many others,” Hoops said. “Each of our district titles were special. The first came in 2014-15, when we were 26-0. A lot went right that year. Then, the next came at the end of that freshman class that won the first one’s senior year in 2017-18. Then, of course, the COVID year. So much uncertainty that year and we won the district as a seven seed. There’s just so many great memories. So many.”
And aside from the wins and losses are life lessons. Those won’t fit on the record pages.
“This job has helped me handle things in my own life,” Hoops said. “These games are important to me and they always have been. But they’ve taught me how to deal with adversity, how to deal with other people, and how to deal with watching players struggle with something, on and off the court, and how to help them cope. Sports are a great thing. They teach so many things and they take you to so many places.”
As he shifts his full attention towards this coming football season, Hoops, 46, isn’t ruling out a return to the basketball floor. But he’s also OK if that doesn’t ever happen.
“At this age, you don’t want to rule anything out,” he said. “But if it doesn’t happen, that’s OK. I can say I’ve given everything I’ve ever had, literally, to this program and to this school. I started in this program when I was a second grader. I played through my senior year, went off to college and came back to help coach my junior year of college. I went to Westfall for two years and took a year off. When you add it altogether, I’ve invested 38 years into this program. It’s been nothing but a blessing because of the experiences that it’s given me.
“I just hope whoever takes over this program sees what it took to get to this level [of success]. It’s high school sports, so it’s going to cycle. But I hope they see the foundation laid and the core values of having a great attitude and playing with great effort. I just hope the little things continue to matter.”
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