Coach Ralph Basketball

About Coach Ralph

 

With more than 25 years of coaching experience, Coach Ralph’s experiences as a coach and educator at the high school and college levels give him great insights into many aspects of the game of basketball, student development, and life.

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Coach Ralph is a proud graduate of Ashland University which is located in Ashland, Ohio.  Coach Ralph earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Ashland and began his coaching career at Ashland, working with the Junior Varsity program under then Head Coach Joe Gottfried.

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Following his graduation, Coach Ralph began his teaching and coaching career at Sandusky, (Ohio) High School.  At Sandusky, Coach Ralph served as assistant boys’ coach and later head girls coach for several years. Coach Ralph also served as a teacher in Health, Physical Education, and Business Education, as well as the Department Chairman for Health and Physical Education.

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After leading Sandusky teams to a 117–74 record during his tenure, Coach Ralph jumped to the college game as an assistant basketball coach at Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania.

After a successful campaign at Slippery Rock, Coach Ralph worked as Head Boys’ Coach at (Columbus, Ohio) Mifflin High School and (Lorain, Ohio) Admiral King High School, winning sectional and district titles in both places. It was while John was at LAK that he was honored as the Coach of the Year by the Lorain County Coaches Association.

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Following those experiences, Coach Ralph joined one of the elite high school programs in the state of Ohio by assisting Hall of Fame basketball coach Joe Petrocelli at Kettering Alter High School. During Coach Ralph’s tenure at Alter, the Knights finished 84–37 with two state final four appearances.

In 2002, Coach Ralph accepted the position as the Head Boys’ Basketball Coach at Dayton Thurgood Marshall High School. He had great success at Thurgood Marshall, particularly in the 2008–2009 season when he guided the program to a city, sectional, district, and regional championship. Thurgood Marshall finished the season as the Ohio High School state runner-up. In addition, Coach Ralph was voted the Greater Dayton High School Basketball Coach of the year.

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Coach Ralph has also worked as a coach at numerous summer basketball camps, including the prestigious Five Star Basketball Camp and Metro Index Basketball Camp.  Coach Ralph has close relationships with other coaches throughout high school and college basketball.  Currently, Coach Ralph serves as Boys’ Assistant Basketball Coach at Archbishop Alter High School in Kettering, Ohio.