Boys basketball: Legendary coach Keith Sooy dies at 79

Keith Sooy was 5-foot-8 and weighed 155 pounds, but he was a giant in high school coaching circles. A head basketball coach for 26 straight seasons and involved with the game at some coaching level for 58 consecutive seasons dating to 1968, the 79-year-old Sooy died Monday afternoon at The Hospice of The Western Reserve. His wife of nearly 58 years, Pat, son Ryan and longtime friend and former Medina assistant coach Rich Ciolek were with him. A celebration of life, tentatively scheduled for April 18, will be held at Medina's Richard H. Clevidence Gymnasium for Sooy, who in early March lost consciousness while teaching at the Educational Service Center of Medina County, fell and hit his head on the edge of a chair. An exercise enthusiast who didn't drink, smoke or curse, Sooy permanently lost consciousness soon after and was placed on a ventilator, which was removed Friday morning. The owner of a 423-145 career record as a head coach, the quiet, proud man who won eight league titles in 11 seasons at Firelands, where he compiled a 188-45 record from 1972-83, one in four years at Elyria (65-27, 1983-87) and four in 11 seasons at Medina (170-73, 1987-98) is probably most famous for never receiving a technical foul in his 568 games. Before and especially after he retired as a head coach, Sooy also spent 32 seasons as an assistant at a number of schools in Northeast Ohio, including Brunswick, Buckeye, Medina and Highland, without getting a "T." "He was such a strong male figure in my life that I didn't need many others," said son Ryan, a 1993 Medina graduate who earned Gazette MVP honors as a junior while playing for his dad. "We weren't a large family and we didn't have a lot of people close by, but our relationship was built around basketball. "My earliest childhood memory is sitting in a gym and watching him coach. He would give me attention before practice started, then after it was over I would get to shoot a little bit. I was taking bus rides to and from Marion and Findlay when I was 8 years old and probably should have been home in bed. It seemed like we were going to another state back then, but being around the team and in the locker room, it imbedded the love of competition in me." A stoic man who never used 100 words if he could convey the same message in 10, Sooy was extremely competitive as a player and coach, with losses sometimes eating at him for days. An outstanding baseball and basketball player at Keystone High prior to graduating in 1964 — his sister Phyllis called him Butch as a toddler because she had trouble pronouncing Keith, and Sooy is still referred to by that name by many people in Lorain County — he went on to play both sports at the University of Findlay. A member of the Keystone, Findlay and Medina County Sports halls of fame, Sooy and Pat met in college and were married on June 1, 1968. They originally planned on having four children, but when Pat had trouble conceiving, they fostered a child who was eventually adopted. Deeply faithful people, the Sooys' prayers were answered when Ryan was born in 1975. "Those were the only things in front of basketball — faith and family," said Highland coach Tanner Houska, with whom Sooy spent the last three seasons working as an assistant, including the first two with grandson Landon Sooy on the team. "He was extremely proud of his grandkids (granddaughter Laken Sooy was an outstanding college gymnast at SUNY Brockport) and Mrs. Sooy meant the world to him." Also a stepgrandfather to Mya, Max and Madden Gargano as well as a dedicated math teacher, Sooy's first job after college was at Midview, where he spent two years before spending two more at Elyria. In 1972-73, he landed his first head coaching job at Firelands, which started 24-0 and reached the regional semifinals in 1979-80. Following four seasons as the head coach at Elyria, Sooy took over at Medina, which had posted a four-year record of 20-65 after reaching the Class AAA state semifinals in 1982-83. Sooy's first Medina team went 4-17 in 1987-88, but his second went 15-8, beginning a 10-year stretch that saw the Bees go 166-56 with players like Gazette MVPs Ryan Sooy (1992), Adrian Stockman (1995) and Chris Pap (1997). "We go back many years," said 56-year-old former Buckeye coach David Negin, whose father Roger was a sportswriter at the Elyria Chronicle-Telegram and covered Sooy's teams. "I probably knew him for 50 years. He's the reason I became a teacher and coach." As luck would have it, Negin's first game as Buckeye head coach was against Sooy and Medina on Nov. 30, 1996. The Bees won 94-56. "Keith was one of the best fundamental teachers of basketball that I've ever been around," Negin said. "His teams were always so well-prepared that he did not get up off the bench much. Coaching with and against him were some of the biggest highlights of my career." A firm believer that the key to winning was the preparation put into each practice, Sooy rarely yelled at his players once a game began. When a pivotal juncture of a game arrived, he didn't diagram a play his team had never practiced, choosing instead to employ end-of-game situations that had been gone over numerous times in a quiet, empty gym. "He was just a very stoic and positive guy," said current Medina coach Chris Hassinger, who was hired by Sooy to coach the eighth-grade team at Root Middle School in 1995-96. "He always wanted to build people up more than tear them down. That's just the kind of guy he was." When he retired as a head coach in 1998, Sooy never stopped coaching, even spending one season in Florida. Included were stints around Medina County, where every coach he worked for was extremely grateful to have him on staff. "He was one of those guys who made you feel good about yourself," Hassinger said. "If you had a bad loss, he would say the simplest things to build you back up. He was that sounding board that let you know you were doing the right thing." Sooy didn't say much as an assistant, but when he talked, the coaches he worked for and their players knew it was important. "He was very simple but very impactful," said Joe Mackey, who just completed his 30th season as Brunswick coach. "That's the best way I can describe him. "I remember one time we were down a point late in the game and I said, 'Coach, what do you got?' He said, 'That's why you make the big bucks.' We drew up a play and won the game and he just looked at me, nodded and said, 'It's always smart to have your best player take the big shot.'" Current Berea-Midpark coach Tom Harrington, who met Sooy while both were on Mackey's staff, hired the legendary coach to work for him when he became head coach at Highland and Buckeye. "Coach Sooy was a calming influence on me," Harrington said. "I always knew I could speak with him about anything, basketball or non-basketball. He was great for our kids. They viewed him as a grandfather-type coach, they knew they could trust him and they knew he cared about them. "Coach Sooy didn't speak very often. It would have been very easy for him to say, 'You should be doing this' or 'You should be doing that,' but he usually didn't say anything unless you asked him. When he did say something, you knew it was important." Those qualities are why retaining Sooy as an assistant was Houska's No. 1 priority when he became Highland's head coach in 2023-24. Sooy, who suffered an earlier but less damaging fall in September while attending a Hornets football game, remained on staff through this season as Highland won the Suburban League American Conference championship. "The knowledge he brought to the game was second to none, but the friendship we developed and the opportunity to coach with him were the most important things," Houska said. "When he spoke, you knew you needed to listen. He was a man of few words, but whatever came out of his mouth was important." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.