St. Marys hires new head basketball coach

ST. MARYS - School board members on Monday night hired a new boys varsity basketball coach.

Jordan Blackburn of Reynoldsburg will succeed longtime boys basketball coach Dan Hegemier, who announced his retirement in late March.

Blackburn was the assistant women's basketball coach at Ohio Wesleyan University. He also coached boys basketball at Delaware Hayes High School for 16 years, including 10 years as head coach, according to the Ohio Wesleyan University athletic website.

While at Delaware Hayes High School, he had a 142-88 record as head coach and set a career mark for winning percentage, per the website. Under Blackburn, the Pacers reached double figures in victories in every season, won an Ohio Capital Conference championship and made two appearances in the district tournament, including a spot in the district finals in 2015.

Hegemier first retired in 2015 after a six-year stint with the Roughriders, but was persuaded to come back in 2019 and coached five more years, guiding the Roughriders to an 89-32 mark.

"I'm 72 years old, I've done this for 38 years and I just decided enough is enough," he said in March. "I've had a great run and had the opportunity to coach a lot of good players, and I also had the joy of having a lot of good assistant coaches. It was just time to go. Just time to move on."

School board members then approved the resignation of Joe Hegemier, the son of Dan Hegemier, as assistant varsity boys basketball coach.

In other business, board members approved a $9,425 contribution from the district building fund to the city of St. Marys for construction of fencing at the softball diamond at K.C. Geiger Park.

Work underway at the diamonds includes new scoreboards, fencing and dugouts, according to city safety director Greg Foxhoven.

"Big thanks to the city of St. Marys for investing in doing the upgrades to our varsity girls' softball diamond at K.C. Geiger Park," said superintendent Bill Ruane. "If you've seen it, it really looks nice. It's not completely done yet, but it's well on its way, and it's an amazing upgrade. I know they have more in the future, but they made this happen. They made it happen pretty quick."

Also, school board members accepted a $500 donation from the St. Marys Foundry for the FFA Heal the Heroes project and a $1,000 donation from the St. Marys Rotary Club for the Memorial High School Memorial Games.

The annual Memorial Games are held at the end of the school year. High school students play staff in various tournaments and participate in a variety of activities.

School board members went into executive session to discuss employment. No action was anticipated afterward.

The board meets next at 6:30 p.m. July 10 in the high school auditorium.