Boys Basketball: Columbia promotes assistant Josh Scharf to head coach

The Columbia High School search committee did not have to look far when the time came to replace Larry Babics as coach of the boys basketball team. After watching how longtime assistant coach Josh Scharf helped navigate the team through uncharted waters during the coronavirus pandemic, and then summer league play after Babics left the program, the Raiders announced Tuesday that the assistant moved down one seat on the bench and will be the new head coach. "I'm excited about the opportunity," Scharf said in a phone interview after coaching the Raiders in summer league play. "We've got a good team coming back, a good core group of players, so I'm excited. "Our kids will play hard. We're going to get after it. The record will be what the record is, but we'll play hard, focus defensively, get some stops." Although the Raiders graduated five seniors, including star guards Caleb Borling, George Wilson and Brandon Fisher, they return seven players who saw time with the high-scoring varsity last season. Columbia finished the season with a 10-4 conference record, good for a third-place tie with the Oberlin Phoenix in the Lorain County League standings. Only the champion Keystone Wildcats (13-1) and Firelands Falcons (11-3) finished with better records. "The style that we played last year and the pace we played, a lot of our younger guys were able to get a lot of action," Scharf said. "Just the experience they were able to obtain, there won't be any hesitation of them stepping up and taking a bigger role this year. It's just them taking the next step up. Having that experience under their belt, they've played at that high level, so they're ready to go." Scharf's tenure as a coach at Columbia started with him reaching out to athletic director Jeff Jump in 2016 to inquire about ways he could help the program. Eventually Babics contacted Scharf, a native of Monroe, Mich., and graduate of Defiance College, and brought him on staff as a volunteer assistant. Scharf worked his way up the coaching ranks, and because of the lessons he learned from Babics, Columbia's leadership believes he is the right person to lead the Raiders. "Josh is just a great person," Jump said. "He relates well with the kids. He's got an awesome work ethic, and he continued to do things with our kids when we were up in the air with everything. He never missed a beat. His dedication to us is awesome. "Josh will do a real good job for us. He's a great guy. He learned from Larry. He's going to take some of the things they did when Larry was there, and he's going to tweak some things, so it's all good." Scharf even got a vote of confidence from Babics shortly after the announcement. "No one had more to do with the success of our program than Coach Scharf," Babics replied to the tweet announcing the hiring. "Tremendous work ethic and leader. Congratulations on an outstanding hire!" Scharf will get a chance to coach against his former mentor. After 15 years at Columbia, including the last nine as head coach of the boys team, Babics recently took the job at Brookside. Columbia and Brookside are members of the LCL and will play a regular-season home-and-home series this winter. "Coach Babics is a great friend of mine," Scharf said. "He's been a tremendous mentor of mine. He saw it in me early on what I could do as a coach. He really just gave me the opportunity and helped me progress through the coaching ranks. I'm forever grateful to him for that. "As coaches, I don't think it's weird. We coach and the players play, so I think for our players, the first time we play them, it'll be odd for them. With our guys, Coach Babics is the only other coach they've known since they've been in middle school. We're great friends. We still talk all the time, but I think once the ball tips, that nervousness or whatever they're going to feel will go away pretty quickly and the players will play." Scharf may not be from Columbia Station, but since his wife, Nina, and sons, Noah (sixth-grader) and Ethan (second-grader) moved to town, he has felt nothing but welcomed. Because of that, there is nowhere else he would rather be, and his focus is on giving the community a team it can be proud of for this season and many more to come. "The city's embraced me and my family like one of their own," Scharf said. "I have told people this. I love coaching basketball, but the only job I ever wanted was the Columbia job. This place is very special to me. It's special to my family. We love this community and we love the school. "This program has been very successful, so it's not a rebuild. We're just going to tweak some things, put some different emphasis on some different areas of the game. We're really going to focus on playing some defense, being able to get multiple stops in a row. Focus defensively, and still play quick offensively, but with a good shot selection and have some clearly defined roles for our players. I'm excited about it. I think we're going to take that next step." Contact Matt Florjancic at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.