Margaretta's Neill named Div. VI coach of the year

Ray Neill is a state coach of the year for the third time in his career. Neill, who led Margaretta to a 26-2 record and final four berth this season, was named Division VI girls basketball coach of the year by the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association. He will receive the award at halftime of the North-South All-Star Game on April 24 at Olentangy Liberty High School. "It means we had a very good season, which is a credit to our girls. Players win games," Neill said. "I share it with those girls and all of my assistant coaches, with everybody in our program." Neill credited his coaching staff after learning he had won the award. The Polar Bears' varsity assistants are Corey Britton and Dan Hedberg. Logan Harris and Tony Haerr coach the junior varsity and Courtney Fitzgerald is the head freshman coach. Keith Martinez rounds out the coaching staff. "I'm blessed to have the coaching staff I have and I thank (athletic director) Drew Grahl with helping me put that together," Neill said. Neill has been a girls basketball head coach for 17 years, spending time at Perkins and Margaretta. He has a 315-101 record in the sport with seven conference championships, seven district championships and three regional titles (2007, 2023, 2026). He shared state coach of the year honors with two others in 2010 while at Perkins. Neill, 73, said he's not ready to hang up his whistle anytime soon and looks forward to coaching in Margaretta's new gym next year. "As a Margaretta grad, I look forward to hopefully coaching some basketball in that new gymnasium," Neill said. "While I'm coaching one sport, I might as well coach the other one. It's what I've always done." Neill recently completed his fourth season as the Polar Bears' head coach. He also coaches baseball at Margaretta, where he is 77-63 in five seasons. "It's something that I love to do," he said. "I still enjoy the competitiveness that comes along with each of those sports. I still enjoy going to practice and relaying the message that this is where we get better. The game is a product of what you get done in those practices." Neill thought he was done coaching when he stepped down as girls basketball and baseball coach at Perkins. He had a 434-144 record in 21 years leading the Pirates' baseball program. "When those things happened, I was thinking I was done," he said. "Eric Kochendoerfer got the head girls job at Margaretta (in 2018). We had become friends at Perkins. He had never coached girls before and asked if I'd help him out a little bit." Neill got the Margaretta girls job in 2022 when Kochendoerfer left to coach the Perkins boys. Neill also thought he might want to try coaching boys basketball and was a finalist in 2017 for job at a small area school that Neill did not want to name. "There were two people who got second interviews for that boys job," he said. "I thought maybe I might want to take a crack at coaching some boys basketball as a head coach. That didn't happen. "I'm blessed that it did happen because this Margaretta situation came to. (Kochendoefer) decided to go to Perkins and the head job kinda fell in my lap. I couldn't be happier."