OXFORD — Talawanda High School’s boys and girls basketball programs will have new leaders for the 2024-2025 season.
Rodney Parrett was named the Brave’s boys coach on Tuesday, while Zach Stapleton was tapped the girls coach. Both positions are pending school board approval.
Parrett coached at Talawanda for seven years, including four as the varsity girls coach, before taking over the Ross girls team from 2011-12 to 2018-19.
“I’m really excited,” said Parrett, who recently retired after 33 years as a West Chester firefighter. “I haven’t coached for the last five years. It wasn’t because I lost any passion for it. I thought I’m not going to jump back in because I just wanted to retire. I can go all in.”
Parrett succeeds Taylor Alstatt and is Talawanda’s 13th boys head basketball coach in 16 years. The Brave have only had one winning season in the last 15 years, recently finishing 2-21 this past winter.
“I’ve watched a lot of these boys play since they were in fifth grade,” said Parrett, a 1986 Ross graduate. “These kids need stability. That’s one thing that I hope I bring to the program. I’m retired. I’m not going anywhere. My career is over. I did what I loved doing, and I don’t look to do anything else but coach the game of basketball. I’ll be able to pour into my passion, which is what these kids need.
“We’ve got some good ball players,” Parrett added. “They were better than the two games they won last year. We’re going to show that this year.”
Parrett, an Oxford resident, lives just two miles from the high school.
“It’s in my backyard, I’ve coached there before, and my kids went there,” Parrett said. “I have ties at Talawanda. Going back to Talawanda was a big thing, and I’m proud to go back to coach there.”
Parrett said he’s coached with Dave Leitch in the past and will have him come on as an assistant. Leitch is the father of Cale Leitch, who will be a senior next year. Parrett noted that the rest of his coaching staff will be solidified in the near future.
“We’re excited to welcome Coach Parrett to lead our boys basketball program,” Talawanda athletic director Jake Richardson said. “We had several strong candidates for the position, but one of our top priorities was finding someone who could bring the structure and consistency that our boys program needs right now, especially after years of coaching turnover.
“He has the experience, knows the community and our district, and he wants to be at Talawanda helping develop these young men. I’m really looking forward to working with him over the next few years.”
As for Stapleton, this is his first varsity head coach job. He coached youth basketball and worked his way up through the Talawanda district for the last 10 years.
“It’s kind of a story where you start almost from the bottom, committed to that community and stuck with it,” said Stapleton, who has also coached AAU teams in the area for five years. “I pretty much coach basketball year-round.”
Stapleton was a girls varsity assistant the last couple of years under Mary Jo Huismann, who retired this past season as the state’s second winningest girls basketball coach with 769 wins.
“She’s had a major impact on my coaching and certainly my style and the way I like to see the game,” Stapleton said of Huismann.
The Brave finished 9-14 last season but won the Southwest Ohio Conference title the two years prior. Stapleton, a 2003 Middletown graduate, said he is looking forward to growing with the program as he takes over.
“The biggest thing for me is that I’m in it for the youth development part. That’s a big deal to me,” Stapleton said. “I love the game, and I love basketball. I think I’m getting an opportunity to do it my way and make sure that we’re not only making better basketball players, but better people.
“You’ve got to love the players as much as you love the game. It’s exciting to get to build on a system that I’ve used in the past where the kids have bought into it. It’s going to be fun to install that and kind of make it my own at Talawanda.”
Stapleton said he’s still mulling over his coaching staff and hopes to solidify it as soon as he can.
“We’ve got some pretty good youth coming up,” he said. “These freshmen are going to be pretty good. The group behind them are really good. You should look forward to some competitive Talawanda teams.
“We’ve got the Brave program. Jason Reynolds has done a fantastic job with that program. He’s kind of done it on his own. We’re looking to help with that and get heavily involved. That’s a large part of your success — getting to them young and keep them playing.”
Stapleton owns an office and furniture sales and installation company and takes care of a farm. He lives in Somerville with his wife and daughter, who is a seventh grader in the Talawanda school district.
“We’re excited to have Coach Stapleton on board to continue the success of our girls program,” Richardson said. “He has been involved with our girls program from the youth level up through the high school level, coaching both at the middle school and high school levels in recent years. He is always ‘All In’ in everything that he takes on, has a strong work ethic and a passion for coaching basketball.
“Zach has been actively involved in the community and already has a grasp on the entire girls program. The future is bright for Talawanda girls basketball, and we’re excited about it.”
