Girls basketball: Veteran area coach John McDermott takes over at Oberlin

John McDermott has made many stops across Lorain County in a coaching career that has spanned four decades. Now, he's ready to call Oberlin home. McDermott was recently announced as the school's girls basketball coach, replacing Brian Joyner, who guided the team to a 3-18 record last season. "To me, Oberlin has always been a basketball town," McDermott said. "When you think of Lorain County basketball, Oberlin is one of the first names you think of. Oberlin is a small tight-knit community, it's somewhere I'm really excited about the chance to coach." McDermott's coaching career has included stints as an assistant at Lake Ridge, Avon Lake, Columbia and Southview. For the past decade, he coached at North Olmsted, where he spent eight years as the girls varsity coach as well as spending time as a boys assistant, most recently this season on Kyle Johnson's staff. "When coach McDermott reached out about the position I knew he'd be a good fit," Oberlin athletic director Bryce Johnson said. "He's done it, he's been there. He's been in programs where he's trying to build the numbers up. John is the perfect fit to give our girls the mindset that it's not just about coming out here between October and March, it's also about everything else that comes along with it." McDermott was instrumental in building North Olmsted's youth program and he said the work Joyner and Johnson, along with Oberlin alums Morgan Jones and Jason Moore, have done building girls basketball in Oberlin from the third grade up was one of the things that attracted him to the program. "Athletic director Bryce Johnson has done a great job there in a short amount of time pushing youth sports," McDermott said. "When you look at what a youth program has to offer that is a direct reflection of how the high school team will turn out. I still love North Olmsted, I work at North Olmsted High School and I plan to continue to do that, but I see an opportunity to be a part of something special at Oberlin." While Oberlin basketball looks bright in the long term, there might also be sunny days in the not-so-distant future. After all, the Phoenix graduated only one senior from last year's squad that ended the year by winning three of their final seven regular-season games, including the first Lorain County League win in program history. "I've watched some film and I'm impressed with the athleticism of the girls in this program," McDermott said. "The next step is putting in a lot of hard work, which I'm more than willing to put in, and convincing the girls that they can play at this level consistently as well." With the school year ending and summer basketball ready to begin, McDermott will be playing catch-up to get the team ready for next season. But he and Johnson believe things will run smoothly thanks to assistant coach Bellanie Barnes, who has been guiding open gyms and offseason workouts until a new coach was hired. Barnes, who was a member of Oberlin's 1996 Lorain County Conference championship team — the last conference title the Phoenix have won — will remain on McDermott's staff. "I came into a situation at North Olmsted not much different than I'm coming into now, and over the course of my eight years we were able to turn things around," McDermott said. "I had the chance to meet with many of the girls at Oberlin this week and they're telling me they're ready to turn this program around." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.