Beachwood head coach Jon Mannarino has stepped down from his post with the Bison boys basketball team, Mannarino confirmed to the News-Herald March 19.
Mannarino had been on a leave of absence from the program. Assistant coach Sean Weatherspoon coached the team in its district semifinal victory over Elyria Catholic and its loss to Lutheran East in a Division III Garfield Heights District final.
“In the last five years I have spent my coaching career growing and learning at Beachwood,” Mannarino said in a statement. “Through those times we have had amazing experiences of joy and heartache, and I wouldn’t change that for anything. However, at this time I’ve decided that the best thing for my family and (me) is to step away and focus on spending time (with) my wife and daughter of 10 months.”
Mannarino was an assistant under previous Beachwood head coach, Matt Miller, for three years. Miller resigned following his third season, a 22-3 campaign in 2015-16 in which the Bison finished as a district runner-up to Villa Angela-St. Joseph.
Nine seniors, including Iowa’s Maishe Dailey, departed the program and Mannarino was tabbed to replace Miller. The Bison expected to endure a rebuild, but instead they won 17 games and returned to the district level.
Expectations ran high for Beachwood’s 2017-18 season behind junior Jayson Woodrich and seniors Josh Sizemore, Cam Thomas and Michael Gordon.
Woodrich suffered a foot injury in the preseason that held him out of the team’s first 12 games. When Woodrich returned, the Bison lost a chunk of their rotation due to academic ineligibility related to Beachwood’s own in-house policies.
After Beachwood lost four of five games to finish the regular season with 11 wins, Mannarino was placed on a leave of absence. Beachwood was eliminated from the postseason March 9 in a 72-62 loss to reigning Division IV state Lutheran East.
A request for comment from the Beachwood athletic department was not immediately returned.
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