Persistent Starkey is top coach

Todd Starkey’s love for basketball that he learned while at Canfield High and his strong personal motivation to succeed in the sport, are two of the main reasons the Lenoir-Rhyne College women’s coach was honored as one of the top mentors in the nation.

Starkey, who was born in Youngstown but played basketball for coach John Cullen at Canfield before making his way into the college basketball world as a player and coach, recently was named women’s NCAA Division II coach of the year by the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association.

“Coach Cullen had a profound impact on me as a player and as a coach. He was a huge influence on me as a coach in the areas of fundamentals and the development of the game,” said Starkey, who was presented his coaching award last Monday along with five other winners at a luncheon in St. Louis.

“[Cullen] was a phenomenal teacher of the game and communicator,” said Starkey. “A lot that I learned came directly from him and the whole Canfield program.”

Starkey, who guided Lenoir-Rhyne of Hickory, N.C., to a 27-5 record — second-most wins in school history — and to the South Atlantic Conference regular season championship in his fourth year at the helm, shared the podium with six other coaches, including Pat Summitt of Tennessee and Geno Auriemma of Connecticut.

Summitt was recognized for winning 1,000 career games while Auriemma was honored as the Div. I coach of the year.

Starkey recalled he didn’t play a lot as a junior and senior on Canfield’s two Mahoning Valley Conference championship teams in 1988 and 1989, but certainly learned a lot and to love the game.

But besides learning from Cullen, Starkey also recalled that, “Loren Mitchell was my seventh grade coach and I learned the most of my fundamentals from him.”

But two of the main lessons that Starkey learned at Canfield was the importance of learning and of being persistent in quest of reaching an objective.

“I went on as a walk-on in college to find a place to play as a role player,” he said.

Determined to make his basketball mark some where, Starkey enrolled at Mars Hill (N.C.) College where he played one year before transferring to Montreat (N.C.) College for one more year season before graduating in 1994.

“I wasn’t in coaching right out of [college]. I played exhibition semi-pro basketball for a team called Crossfire and we traveled overseas to play,” said Starkey. “Then I returned to Montreat in 1998 to become assistant men’s basketball coach for five seasons before shifting to Lenoir Rhyne as an assistant men’s coach [for two years].”

Starkey emphasized the importance of recruiting.

“My first year [2005], I got the job a week before school started so I was coaching the former coach’s players. The next year, I brought in 10 freshmen and one transfer in my recruiting class, and that class was juniors this year. Seven of the original freshmen were on the team and I added two Division I transfers,” said Starkey who has had season records of 10-18, 16-12, 15-13 and 27-5.

Starkey doesn’t have family anymore in the Youngstown area because his parents, David, former music teacher at Youngstown State, and Alice, are retired and now living near him; while his uncle, Chuck Moffett, former minister of Canfield Presbyterian Church, also is retired in Florida.

But he tries to visit Canfield whenever he can, and last visited the school and Cullen about five years ago, and expects to be back in September.

“I am coming back to attend my 20-year class reunion, and maybe I and [some of my former teammates] can get together for a pickup basketball game,” said Starkey.

XJohn Kovach writes about college athletics for The Vindicator. E-mail him at kovach@vindy.com.