Margaretta grad Yost hired to lead Cardinal Stritch boys basketball

Cardinal Stritch, which won a boys basketball district championship in 2023 with hard-fought wins over Margaretta and Huron, has a new head coach, and he had as much personal investment in those victories as anyone. John Yost, a 1991 Margaretta graduate, watched those pair of wins over SBC foes from the scorers table keeping the book. He'll slide over this upcoming winter, having been announced as the Cardinals' new coach on Wednesday. "I always kind of dreamed about it," Yost said of becoming a head coach. Yost played two varsity basketball seasons for the Polar Bears under Paul Orshoski. He led the squad in scoring as a senior at 15.5 points per game. The Polar Bears went 11-10 when Yost was a senior as three other players joined him in double figures: Matt Brunner (12.4), Wade Adkins (11.4) and Travis Keller (10.5). "We had a lot of fun," Yost said. "Terry Yost was not a relative, he was a year ahead of me, and everyone thought we were brothers. We played along with it as best we could. Orshoski did a nice job of always having us ready to play. We just always had those different injuries that would somehow derail us, but we were always tough teams." Yost attended college at Bowling Green. During his time there, he spent a season commuting to coach freshman boys basketball at Margaretta. He also spent a summer working Steve Fisher's camp at the University of Michigan. He coached three seasons in the mid-2000s under Tom Jeffrey with St. Mary Central Catholic girls basketball. "I've just always loved the game," Yost said. "I love seeing kids when they're really intense and listening to what you're saying, and you see them turn around and do what you taught them and have that look on their face where they're like, 'Wow I just did that.' " The family moved to Perrysburg 2009 when Yost took a job with Libbey Glass. He's now the director of distribution operations there. Yost became involved with the Stritch program when his kids became a part of the Catholic school in Oregon, Ohio. Collin was a 2018 grad, followed by Hope in 2020. "A lot of it has just been being that extra dad," Yost said. "I've done the scorebook for (Jamie) Kachmarik and Sed Harris. Doing the scoreboard if not the scorebook. During the COVID year, I took all of the Stritch 2024s and combined kids from Bowling Green and we went and played all over Cleveland." The youngest child for Yost and his wife, Becky, is Owen, who will be a senior in 2024. Yost's parents still live in Castalia, and his in-laws reside in Sandusky. "Once Owen was graduating, my plan was to get into refereeing or coaching," Yost said. "It came a little bit earlier than I anticipated. You don't get many chances to coach your kid at the high school level, so it was a perfect fit. I talked to Owen before I accepted, and he just wanted to make sure I'd be tough on everybody." Owen's name might look familiar to local hoops fans. He couldn't miss in the second half of the 2023 district semifinal against Margaretta, nailing three 3-pointers and totaling 13 points off the bench to hold off the upset-minded Polar Bears. "It felt really good," Yost said. "I knew the coaches on Margaretta's sideline. Steve Keller was a class act as always. Shook my hand and said Owen Yost is the reason you guys are going on. Out of all the things Steve had to be worried about, he made a point to say something to me." Owen Yost goodness pic.twitter.com/vBTTyaspUn — Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) March 2, 2023 Yost's opportunity to lead the Cardinals gives him a chance to watch and work with his son from the best seat in the house. "It'll be a roller coaster, no doubt," Yost said. "As a dad, you've got a ton of faith in him. I know how hard he works. Both as a father and a coach, you always want to push them to their limits. That'll always be the challenging part in separating dad and coach… I feel confident that I've demonstrated success there, but I know there's a difference between junior high ball and high school basketball." Cardinal Stritch went 22-4 in 2022-23 under previous head coach Sed Harris, falling to Ottawa-Glandorf in the Division III regional semifinals. Harris departed to take the athletic director and head basketball coach job at Emmanuel Christian. "Players are so accustomed to Coach Yost that transitionally it will feel like no time has passed," Stritch athletic director Denny Shoemaker said in a news release. "He knows our winning tradition and I'm excited to see him propel our program even more." In addition to Yost's son, sturdy point guard Tommie Taylor provides Stritch with an experienced, solid core to compete again in the Toledo Area Athletic Conference. "From a basketball perspective, it's all about speed on both ends," Yost said. "We don't have the size that Stritch has had, but we've got plenty of speed and are very athletic. We're gonna use that to our advantage." Divisional assignments have not yet been released for the upcoming winter, but it's likely Yost will be right back in the same tournament bracket as his alma mater. If the chips fall the right way, he might even get the chance to coach against the Polar Bears in a postseason game. "That would be awesome," Yost said. "I know a lot of the coaches, and Steve coaches his son, too. That'd be fun."