Lordstown gets its wish for basketball coach: It’s Kish

By John Bassetti

LORDSTOWN — Nathan Kish scored 1,318 points during his high school basketball career, but he’s also hoping to score big with the Lordstown community as the high school’s new boys basketball coach.

Lordstown, a Division IV school, represents the first head coaching job for the 27-year-old Kish, a former Trumbull County player-of-the-year at Champion High (1999-2000).

Kish previously coached as varsity assistant for one season at Garrettsville Garfield, then at the JV level in Clayton, N.C., for three years before returning to the area last summer. He spent the 2008-09 season as 7th-grade coach in the Champion system.

Kish, a teacher at Maplewood, replaces Ron Purnell, who guided Lordstown for three seasons. The Red Devils were 6-16 overall and 3-13 in the Northeastern Athletic Conference in 2008-09.

“There’s a lot of basketball tradition from the past that we’re trying to bring back,” said athletic director Dave Vecchione.

“Nathan’s got a nice opportunity to build a program from the elementary school on up,” said Vecchione, who noted that Lordstown hasn’t won a conference championship in a long time.

“We have good numbers, but we just need someone to start the kids at a younger level. We have a good group of kids coming back. We’re looking at him to, basically, build our program.”

Vecchione, who has been Lordstown’s A.D. for three years, said that Kish is a good-character person and a teacher who will work well with the system’s student-athletes.

Vecchione’s objective is to have Lordstown’s numbers increase, get more individuals involved in the basketball program and build on that community pride.

In college, Kish averaged about 9 ppg his senior year and scored 706 points during his four seasons at Roberts Wesleyan in Rochester, N.Y., an NAIA school which had American Mideast Conference rivals such as Ohio Dominican, Malone and Tiffin.

Kish said he’s looking to stimulate Lordstown’s basketball appetite.

“I believe you have to start young. It gets the kids excited, but it also teaches them fundamentals.”

He’ll conduct a kids camp June 15-18 for youth entering grades 1-4 and 5-8 in separate sessions. He plans to use his high school players as aides.

“When young kids work with older kids, then they want to watch the older ones play and the older kids think they’re doing something special, so that’s good,” he said.

During open gym for the varsity and junior varsity players, Kish will invite 7th and 8th graders to condition separately.

Kish, who played at Champion for Jeff Rasile, now McDonald’s coach, said he learned a lesson in college, where he played with two teammates who scored 2,500 points apiece.

“The biggest thing, if you want to be on a team, is that you can have only one person who scores and you have to accept that role. My job on defense was to stop the other team’s best player and, on offense, to knock down 3s when I was open. I took pride in those roles.

“Instead of scoring, I tried to play defense. Hopefully, I can instill that just because you don’t score 20 a night doesn’t mean you’re not a successful player.”

Nathan, who teaches special education, is married to the former Lisa Walters of Champion. His wife teaches math.

“We packed up and went,” said Kish. “People think I’m crazy for coming back, but it’s not a vacation all the time. I think the schools are much better here in Northeastern Ohio. We’re lucky to have what we have.”

Vecchione said that Lordstown’s enrollment is just under 200 in grades 9-12. That’s about 50 students per grade.

“Next year’s senior class coming up is in the mid-30s,” said Vecchione. “We’re one of the smallest in the area.”

The A.D. wants Kish to be real positive.

“He is young, but I think our program is good for him because he wants to help reestablish a program and build on it,” said Vecchione. “Lordstown kids play basketball in the parks, but they’ve got to realize that it’s got to be more involved when coaches have organized camps.”

bassetti@vindy.com