Elyria Catholic hires three coaches, including Jeff Huber in boys basketball

Hours before Elyria Catholic ushered out its senior class during the graduation ceremony Friday night, athletic director Jim Piazza took care of some business that will affect the underclassmen by announcing the hiring of three coaches. Jeff Huber was named the boys basketball coach, longtime golf coach Rick Montgomery is returning after a one-year hiatus and Ryan Schlothauer will take over the girls soccer program. "We're just really excited to have them become part of the Elyria Catholic family and we're looking forward to watching our programs succeed," Piazza said. Huber comes to EC after running the Westlake boys basketball program the past three years. He also was the Holy Name coach from 2010-19, so he is familiar with the Panthers as both schools were conference rivals of Elyria Catholic — Westlake joined the Great Lakes Conference last season and Holy Name is in the GLC and battled EC in the North Coast League during Huber's first two years at the helm. "Going back to when I was at Holy Name, I've always thought that there was a lot of potential for the (EC) program," Huber said. "There is certainly a track record of athletic success and the EC community is really passionate about sports. "There are a number of things that made the job really appealing and I think there's potential to really build an elite program here. I think the other nice thing is that you're not coming in starting at square one, the program's been successful in recent years. So you have guys who are used to winning, know how to win and expect to win. So there's already the beginning of a culture in place that hopefully we can come in and build upon." Another selling point for the EC basketball gig is the Coliseum — the site where the Panthers play their home games that resembles a mini-arena more than a typical high school gym. "It's funny, since I took the position I've had a handful of coaches who've reached out and said how much they enjoy playing there and would like to come play us at EC in the future," Huber said. "It's pretty rare to get coaches seeking out an away game, so it definitely has a certain appeal to it. It really is a cool venue. So, yeah, I'm really excited about that." Huber takes over for Rob Palmer, who served as the head coach the past four seasons. Palmer, whose youngest of three children graduated from the school Friday night, said he has signed year-to-year contracts and the school chose not to bring him back. "I went in for my end-of-season meeting and it was a pretty good review and then at the end of the meeting they said, 'We've chose to go in a different direction,'" Palmer said. "It came as a bit of a shock to me, but I wasn't going to make a big stink out of it. "At the end of the day, I'm just glad I had one year with Phil (Kuchta) as an assistant and four years on my own. I feel really good about what we did. I wish it would have ended differently, but it is what it is." The transition for Montgomery won't be difficult, as he coached the EC golf team for a decade before taking last season off due to a heavy workload. "I just didn't have enough time to (coach high school)," Montgomery said. "I had just left Brentwood and took a job at Sweetbriar Legacy. I was teaching like crazy out there, so I had to step down from it." Montgomery has since become the pro at Grey Hawk Golf Club in LaGrange, which happens to be the Panthers' home course. Buddy Goodwin took over for Montgomery and resigned after one season, and the players began clamoring for Montgomery to return. "I missed the golf and I missed coaching them," said Montgomery, who also coached hockey at EC for 17 years. "In my last eight years coaching at EC, I've got five kids playing college golf. Just great relationships there … I'm looking forward to that again." Schlothauer will be the rookie high school coach among the new hires, although he has coached club soccer for the past 12 years. He replaces Mike Besu. Schlothauer was a four-year starter at Western Reserve Academy and the College of Wooster, and being a high school coach was always part of his career plans. "I grew up with my dad (Walter) coaching high school at North Olmsted and he's been coaching club (soccer) my whole life," Schlothauer said. "Within the last few years he started coaching at Olmsted Falls, and it's something I've always been interested in doing. So when the opportunity came up at Elyria Catholic, it was a good situation for me." Schlothauer was a longtime coach for the Excalibur soccer club, then began coaching at North FC in Avon. He believes his experience with elite travel players will be key to the Panthers' success. "I am super excited (to get started)," he said. "I think there should be a good corps of girls and I'm looking forward to seeing what we've got to work with and what we can do going forward. I'm looking to build a good, strong program." Contact Shaun Bennett at 329-7137 or sbennett@chroniclet.com. Like him on Facebook and follow him @ShaunBennettct on Twitter.