Steve Minor takes over for Smith at St. Paul

NORWALK — After high school, Steve Minor missed basketball.The 1991 St. Paul graduate figured if he got into coaching, it would fill a void."But when I started coaching, it flipped a different switch and I fell in love with it," Minor said.That love has taken him to a position he never once envisioned when he first started in 1993. Minor was announced as the successor to Mike Smith as the boys varsity basketball coach at St. Paul.Smith, a 1985 SPH graduate, coached the Flyers for the past 32 seasons and won 411 games before announcing his retirement on March 29.Minor had previously served as Smith's junior varsity coach for the past eight seasons."When I first started, I was just ecstatic to have the seventh grade job," Minor said. "That passion for coaching just kept growing, and I was able to feed it. And then it was eighth grade, freshman and JV ... no time was I ever eying Mike's job one day — but I also never really had the desire to go anywhere else."Minor said he was asked a few times about coaching elsewhere."But it wasn't where my heart was," he said. "And as Mike started to go down that road to where "this could be it" type of a situation, I honestly didn't put a whole lot of stock into it. Just because of his dedication and love for it, I thought, 'OK, alright. He just needs time to clear his mind at the end of the season and he'll be back.'"But as it became apparent that Smith was heavily considering retirement, Minor, a working supervisor for Huron County, realized he had to start weighing the idea."Would I want to do it? Would I be willing to work under someone else ... getting the opportunity to take over started outweighing my other thoughts."St. Paul athletic director John Livengood, who has worked with Smith as the varsity coach for his entire tenure at the school, said Minor is an excellent leader and communicator."Steve will serve as a strong mentor in developing strong Catholic men in our basketball program," Livengood said. "I look forward to working with Steve. He has an excellent rapport with our administration and the students. He is a lifelong Flyer that has shown commitment to our church and school his entire life."Minor said Smith has been a great mentor and friend to him since he was in junior high."I chased him through the system," Minor joked. "When I was in junior high, he was the freshman coach. Then when I got to high school, he moved up to JV coach. I thought I had finally caught up to him for my sophomore year — then he got the varsity job."But I finally chased him down, and Coach Smith has been a great mentor and a fantastic friend."Minor has worked for the county for the past 22 years. He's also spent the past 28 years coaching different levels of Flyer basketball. As someone who hasn't had to do much interviewing, he found himself nervous during the process despite his familiarity with the school."It was nervous in a good way, because this is very exciting," he said. "It feels great, and I'm excited to get things moving. We're already in the process of shoring up a coaching staff, getting a summer schedule cemented and setting up various fundraising — all the organizational things that need in order."The Flyers are coming off a 17-win season and a Division IV district runners-up finish in 2020-21, but four starters from that team graduate next month. Despite being a fairly inexperienced team at the varsity level in 2021-22, Minor said he hopes his rapport with the returning players will help."The class that will be seniors next year I've come al the way from ninth grade on up with them," he said. "Their freshman year we were short-handed so I coached both freshmen and JV that season. We're pretty familiar with each other, and I think their potential is limitless."As for how he sees the program moving forward, Minor — who currently coaches junior high track and field at St. Paul — says he has a lot of ideas."As would anyone," he said. "But how it materializes may be something different. I know what a lot of the kids are capable of — but some of them don't know wha they are capable of. We need to get them to see their potential and get them some real game-time experience. "This is a huge summer for a lot of these guys," he added. "Last summer was basically lost with the shutdown from the virus. There are a lot of pieces in the puzzle to fit together right now. I've composed a depth chart down to the fifth and sixth grade level ... I'm pretty anxious to get going and laying out the plans from here until the season starts."