Shaeffer

VINCENT — Darius Shaeffer has more than 20 years of high school basketball coaching experience.

Shaeffer, who recently completed his first year as an assistant principal at Warren High School, is taking over head coaching duties for the Warriors girls basketball team.

“I had full intentions of being done with coaching,” said Shaeffer, who comes to Warren from Huron High School. “I missed it more than I thought I would. To have this opportunity a year in at Warren is really a blessing to me. I missed coaching.”

Shaeffer primarily coached boys junior varsity hoops at Huron, but spent his final four years there as the girls varsity boss.

“I switched from boys to girls when my daughter was a junior,” Shaeffer said.

“I took over a girls program that was not very successful.”

The Tigers won 16 games each of Shaeffer’s first two seasons, including the program’s first sectional championship in more than a decade. As a result, Shaeffer was named District Coach of the Year.

“Just buy-in. Getting girls to buy into the system I wanted to run and getting them to believe in each other,” Shaeffer said.

Shaeffer takes over for Brad Venham, who was at the helm for four seasons at Warren. Last year, a young, senior-less Warriors squad went 11-11 in the regular season before dropping their tournament opener to Hillsboro 56-44.

DeLaney Gates, Jayda Murray, Danica Gates, Josie Venham and Juliana Huffman played in all 23 games for Warren last year. Aubrey Pepper and Rylee Arnold battled injuries but made big contributions when healthy.

“We have the whole team coming back, which is a good thing,” Shaeffer said. “Just watching them, Coach Venham did a good job preparing them for what should be a successful year.

“Having a team that has played together with no seniors is just huge. They already have that chemistry. They already know each other. We don’t have to mix in a lot of new pieces.”

One of the biggest things Shaeffer stresses as a coach is playing as a team.

“It’s going to be team basketball,” he said. “We’re not going to play 1-on-1 basketball or anything like that. It’s sharing the ball and working as a team to get things done.

“We’re going to try to play to our strengths. I think we have a pretty athletic team, which kind of fits the style I like to play.”

Shaeffer’s wife, Mary, was approved last year as the superintendent for Marietta City School District.