Steve Frazee remembered

Emily Grine still remembers the phone call. Near the end of April 2024, the former St. Paul athlete was leaving track and field practice as an assistant coach when Steve Frazee called her. Grine was no stranger to Frazee from his days as both a junior high head coach and varsity assistant coach on the boys side. Frazee had just been hired as the varsity girls head coach at St. Paul, and one of his first moves was to ask the previous assistant coaches to stay on his staff. That included Grine, Emily Riley, and Tim Watson. "I was grateful he wanted to keep us on staff, because he could have brought anyone on with him," Grine said. "But I remember him saying that he wanted us to stay not just for our experience, but rather for our relationship with the girls. "He thought having coaches they already knew and trusted would help them during the transition. That was his first concern." Frazee fell ill shortly before the Flyer girls program was to celebrate a big turnaround at the team's year-end banquet on March 10. He died unexpectedly in the early hours of March 11 at the age of 54, leaving a community, school, and program in shock. "Steve was a good man and friend," St. Paul athletic director John Livengood said. "We shared many conversations over the years. A lot of those were about athletics, but many of our conversations were about life and family." Frazee was an active member of St. Paul Catholic Church. He was a server, mass coordinator, and eucharistic minister. He was also the treasurer of the Firelands Catholic Education Development Office. A funeral mass was set for 10:30 a.m. Monday at St. Paul. Frazee's wife of 19 years, Stephanie, died at age 42 from cancer in September 2020. The couple had two children, Korey and Kennedie. Korey graduated from St. Paul last year after helping the boys basketball team to its best season in more than 25 years. Kennedie is a junior at St. Paul and is a record-breaking swimmer, and she helped her dad as a team manager in basketball when her swimming didn't conflict. "There was nothing more important to Steve than his children," Riley said. "If you know the kids, it's very easy to see the great parents that Steve and Stephanie were. Steve so enjoyed the balancing act last year between coaching the girls then turning around and watching Korey play." Riley noted that Frazee often was proud to share photos of Kennedie's record-breaking swim races over the past two years as well. Livengood said the practice schedule was structured so that Frazee never missed one of Korey or Kennedie's events. "We would sit down and plan this out in advance, and sometimes change things around at the last moment to make it work," he said. "Watching them in sports was the joy of his life. He was so proud of them." On the court, Frazee took over a program that had won just two games the year before and won just two games in his first season. But this winter, St. Paul improved to 11-13 overall and reached the district tournament for the first time in six years with a young team. Watson has been an assistant coach in the girls program for 20 years, including the last two with Frazee. "We had the same coaching philosophies, which made the transition very easy," Watson said. "Steve was very knowledgeable about basketball and earned the respect of the girls. "He was a very humble and quiet person, but he knew how to get his point across with the girls. He valued my opinion and knowledge, which is why we got along so well. I will certainly miss working with him." The St. Paul program, like many, has struggled with participation numbers in recent years. Riley said Frazee went above and beyond in trying to create interest at the youth level. This past season, the program hosted an 11-week youth clinic on Saturday mornings for third- and fourth-graders. "Steve made sure our practices did not conflict with this, allowing our varsity players to be there to help out with drills and to be positive role models for our younger kids," Riley said. "He was supportive of all players in our program attending each other's games, encouraging teams to be there to cheer on those both older and younger." Riley also noted that Frazee's message to younger kids was the importance of being a good teammate. Frazee was a 1989 graduate of Buckeye Central High School, where he played both football and basketball. He began his coaching career in 1996 as a varsity assistant at Bucyrus Wynford. In 2000, he returned to Buckeye Central as the junior varsity head coach. Frazee eventually relocated to Norwalk, where he and Stephanie raised their two children. He began coaching at the junior high level with Korey's class in 2020 when Mike Smith was still the varsity coach at St. Paul. After Smith's retirement, Frazee was the varsity assistant for Steve Minor for Korey's first three seasons. Not long after deciding he wanted to watch Korey's senior season from the stands, with more free time to also be at all the swim meets, Frazee got attracted to the girls job. Among those encouraging him to take the position was his daughter, Kennedie. Stating he wanted to at least give five years and put the program in a better place with participation and victories, Frazee's teams were already way ahead of schedule, capped by a comeback win over Old Fort in a Division VII sectional title game on Feb. 21. "When it came to coaching, Steve was a very humble person and would rather be in the background than in the spotlight," Livengood said. "He did a fantastic job of getting our program going in the right direction." Grine believed Frazee's love of his two children carried over to the basketball gym. "You knew from talking to Steve that Korey and Kennedie were the kind of people others could look up to," she said. "It's clear that they are emulating their parents. And Steve loved the game of basketball, too." Grine said that went beyond the hours spent breaking down scout and game film, and creating stat sheets. "Those things were all parts of the job," she said. "But his genuine care for the girls is what stood out. With Kennedie being a junior, he had known several of the girls even before applying for the job. "That carried over. He loved his players like daughters."