Keller steps down after winning run at Margaretta

CASTALIA — Steve Keller met one last time with his Margaretta boys basketball team Tuesday afternoon to announce that he is stepping down after 14 successful seasons as head coach. Keller, who has a career record of 324-244 at three different schools, had nine winning seasons at Margaretta and led the Bears to district championships the last three seasons, as well as in 2022. He described the meeting with his team as "tough," even though there has been speculation for weeks that the popular coach would resign. "You look at their faces and you love every one of them," Keller said. "For me, coaching has not been about wins. It's about caring about young men, loving them and growing them into being better young men. That's the toughest part, leaving guys like Kale and Tyson (Bailey), who are gonna be four-year guys, and all the juniors, sophomores, freshmen. "You build relationships. It's sad, but they'll be ready to go and have a nice year next year." Keller was scheduled to meet with Margaretta athletic director Drew Grahl last week to discuss his future in the program, but asked for more time. He notified Grahl of his decision late Monday. "Coach was extremely reflective," Grahl said. "He took some time to talk to his family and close friends and colleagues. He put a lot of extra effort into it. He's made a decision that's in the best interests of his family. "He's been an absolute joy to work with. We're certainly going to miss him." Keller said the decision to step away from a head coaching position wasn't easy. "With a tremendous staff and quality young men, it was a very, very difficult decision," he said. "I have a freshman daughter (Renna) and a seventh-grade daughter (Mara) and I've missed a lot of stuff. I missed the (girls) state semifinal down in Dayton. I saw just a couple full games of my seventh-grader. "It's time. I've prayed on it for months. I just felt nudged the last few weeks to make this decision. Life's too short. I have buried one son already so I gotta make sure I spend a lot of time with the family and make sure I don't miss things." Keller and his wife, Janni, have five children. Judah, the second oldest, will graduate this spring and was a star player for the Polar Bears. The Kellers also have four girls. Renna played on Margaretta's final four team this season. Jaelle, the oldest, also played for a state semifinalist. Noa is the youngest. A sixth child, Kole, passed away in 2007. Keller, who previously coached at Clyde and Sandusky, went 221-129 at Margaretta and won four Sandusky Bay Conference championships (2022, 2024, 2025, 2026). "He's a first-class individual and a first-class coach," Grahl said. "He has done a phenomenal job of building the culture in our program." Grahl said he hopes to keep Keller involved in Margaretta basketball in some capacity. "We have had talks about how we can keep him in front of the kids," Grahl said. "We think the world of Coach Keller and his family. He's such a good role model and mentor and we value him a lot." Keller, 49, said he plans to stay involved in Margaretta athletics. "I'll still be able to build relationships with athletes," he said. "In my years of education, coaching and teaching kind of co-exist and that's important to me." Keller is the career-based intervention coordinator at Margaretta and also oversees internships for the Polar Nation Academy. He was a standout player at Oak Harbor, where he played for his father, Steve Sr. He graduated from high school in 1995 and was a four-year starter at Malone University. Keller was an assistant at Sandusky for three seasons before landing his first head coaching job at Clyde at the age of 25. Keller won 46 games in four seasons. His best season with the Fliers was his first when Keller's 2002-03 team went 17-6. He took the Sandusky job in 2006 and won 57 games with the Blue Streaks in six seasons. His best season at SHS was his first, when the Streaks went 16-7. At Margaretta, Keller closed out a 24-year run as a head coach with six straight winning seasons. The Bears have compiled a 122-33 record since 2020 and went 71-10 the last three years as Julian Washington developed into one of the top players in Ohio. "I'm blessed because the last five years we've hit a level at Margaretta we've never been at," Keller said. "More importantly, we had teams with great chemistry. They showed a lot of grit and toughness. "Communities need to understand that in public schools you're gonna ebb and flow with the talent levels that you have. But the most important thing in athletics is learning togetherness and the intangibles such as hard work, integrity and focus." Keller's last game on the sidelines was a 62-59 double-overtime loss to private school power Columbus Academy in a Division V regional final at Big Walnut High School. The game was delayed a day due to a power outage, which caused the Bears to spend an extra night on the road. "Our boys battled and that's all you can ask. That's gonna take you places in life," said Keller, who drove one of Margaretta's 10-person passenger buses to Columbus. Grahl said the boys basketball job will be posted and he hopes to fill the position soon. "There's some urgency with the summer schedule, but we need to be thorough and make sure we have a good fit," he said. Margaretta also will look to fill a vacant assistant coaching role after Jake Meisler stepped down at the end of the season to focus on his Ohio Buckets organization. Keller and Meisler posted an announcement on social media shortly after Keller's team meeting. The post read, in part: "When we took this job together in 2012, we talked about our top priority being to impact the lives of student-athletes through basketball while teaching life lessons. The many great student-athletes, parents, administration and fans have allowed us to comfortably say we've done that." Keller spoke often during an interview Tuesday afternoon about the importance of being a coach who focuses on more than Xs and Os. "I believe in the importance of coaches as mentors and developing young men with work ethic and toughness and handling adversity — all the intangibles we don't see always in an article from Friday or Saturday night," he said. "We see the final score, but coaching is so much more than that, and that's what I'll miss more than anything."