State champion Louisville to look for new coach

LOUISVILLE ‒ Like raising a son from birth to manhood, Tom Siegfried has tended to Louisville boys basketball for the last 18 years. 

Watching it mature. Watching it fail. Watching it succeed — and the Leopards succeeded to the highest degree under Siegfried. 

The Louisville High School boys basketball program is all grown up now. Siegfried feels it’s the perfect moment to let it go. 

Siegfried is stepping down as Leopards coach after his tenure culminated in a Division III state championship last month. He spoke to the team about his decision Monday morning. 

There are many reasons the time is right for Siegfried to make this move, most notably his desire to watch his point guard and son, Beau, play at Ashland University next year. 

But it still wasn’t an easy decision, not after almost two decades of time and toil to build a basketball power in a football town. 

“I’ll never take that for granted because I remember what it felt like when it wasn’t that way,” Siegfried said. “That’s the frustrating part for me, knowing you did all this building to get to the top, and then to release it. It’s almost like you’re releasing your children to college or adulthood or whatever, and you have to trust that whoever comes next, it’s going to be in good hands.” 

The 50-year-old Siegfried will stay on as the history department head and assistant athletic director at Louisville. He also has a fence and deck business he runs during the summer. 

Louisville athletic director Terrie Horn knew Siegfried was considering stepping away as coach. 

“I still got choked up when he told me,” Horn said. “I know what we’ll be missing and I know those shoes are big ones and it’s going to be very hard to fill them.” 

Louisville went 270-155 under Siegfried, making him the winningest coach in program history by a mile. Louisville was strong for most of Siegfried’s career, with 15 winning seasons overall and 12 straight to finish his time as coach. 

It went to another level the last four years, with an 86-20 record, a boatload of significant wins, two district titles and the first state championship in program history. The 2022 district title was Louisville’s first in 29 years. Louisville went 24-5 this season — the most single-season wins in program history after it had tied the record last year when it went 23-3. 

These last four years included his son on varsity. Beau Siegfried is Louisville’s all-time leader in assists and 3-pointers. 

“Not too many coaches can say they went out on a win with their son,” Tom Siegfried said. 

Siegfried guided the Leopards to four NBC titles before the league unceremoniously dumped Louisville in 2018. 

He coached the last four Repository Stark County Players of the Year: Will Aljancic twice, Hayden Nigro and Brayden Gross. 

He watched Louisville’s scoring record be broken four times during his tenure, first by Drew Noble (1,078), then by Chris Libertore (1,146), Aljancic (1,409) and Nigro (1,434). Bob Gladieux’s record of 1,024 had stood for 51 years when Noble broke it in 2016. Overall, Siegfried coached the top five scorers in Louisville history, with Gross finishing third with 1,167 points. 

Siegfried’s final two wins were the stuff of movie scripts. 

The Leopards rallied to beat Garfield Heights and Ohio Mr. Basketball Marcus Johnson 49-48 in a state semifinal that included 4,120 fans in a rocking Memorial Field House. 

They then survived a furious rally by Cincinnati Aiken to win the state final 63-61 in front of 7,178 fans at University of Dayton Arena. 

“When I was younger and we were trying to build it and do it the right way, and you have some losing seasons, you just want people to have trust and faith in you,” Siegfried said. “You know you’re working hard and you’re going to get there at some point. And now that we’ve got there, it’s hilarious selling out a game in a 4,500-seat place like the Field House. I can remember having 350 people at a Friday night game. Basketball was just something the football players did in the offseason. Now, this town has become basketball.” 

Horn, in her eighth year as AD, explained Siegfried’s role in the emergence of Louisville basketball like this: “He has a passion like no other. He gives 100 percent to everything he does. The time he spends planning, organizing, building relationships with not only the kids but the parents and the community, it’s second to none. I’ve never seen anything like it.” 

Siegfried started referring to Louisville basketball as “The Program” about 10 years ago. The ostentatious moniker, which irked opposing coaches and fans at times, was part of Siegfried’s plan to give an identity to Louisville basketball beyond just the varsity team. 

He saw it as a top-to-bottom vision for hoops in Louisville, and he lived it by being heavily involved with youth basketball. 

“That’s what started all of this, I believe,” Horn said, “was building those relationships and showing up for those kids and showing them that he cared.” 

Siegfried called the state championship “icing on the cake” of his career, not the reason to step away now. 

He felt there was symmetry in finishing with this year’s rotation, which consisted of eight seniors who basically were born the year he became head coach. 

Another reason he feels comfortable stepping away at this point is the overall health of the program. 

Louisville’s junior varsity and freshman teams went a combined 34-4 this past season. 

“We definitely are not in a rebuilding stage anytime soon here at Louisville,” Siegfried said. “They should have the opportunity to do a lot of winning here coming up and keep this thing going. That kind of lent itself to being a good time for fresh thoughts and fresh ideas to come in with some of the foundation that I’ve laid and the expectations we’ve laid as a staff.” 

Siegfried expects varsity assistant coach Owen Gramoy and JV coach Dave Wertz to be among the candidates applying to succeed him. 

A 1993 Alliance High School graduate, Siegfried is in his 26th year at Louisville. He spent two years as the freshman girls basketball coach, then six years with the boys basketball program under Matt Miglich before becoming the head coach in 2007. He also spent 14 years coaching with the baseball program. 

His tenure as head coach covered four athletic directors, four principals, five superintendents, five girls basketball coaches and five football coaches at Louisville by his count. 

Siegfried does not consider this a retirement from coaching. He assumes he’ll return to the sideline at some point down the road. The college ranks always have intrigued him. 

For now, he won’t officially be “Coach Siegfried,” but chances are he’ll always be Coach Siegfried at Louisville. 

“It does become part of your identity,” he said. “You always feel like you have your guard up, trying to do what’s right for a million different people, whether it’s a Little Dribbler, a varsity player or past alumni. 

“Those relationships will still be there. They’ll just be a little different.” 

Reach Josh at josh.weir@cantonrep.com 

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