‘A lot to live up to’: Columbus-area coaches juggle basketball, family
Tuesday, December 26, 2023
By Michael Rich
mrich@cbussports.com
Hilliard Darby head coach Chris Maul directs his son Ty (center) during a recent game at Darby. Photo: Kevin Lam
Ty Maul spent all of his free time in the offseason in the gym working on his basketball game or in the weight room getting stronger. The Hilliard Darby junior guard wanted to make sure that he was fully prepared for his first season as a full-time varsity player.
Maul, an adept shooter and ball handler, didn’t want to disappoint. He feels a sense of responsibility being the son of 10th-year Panthers coach Chris Maul.
There’s something extra to being the son or daughter of a coach.
“He’s definitely hard on me,” said Ty Maul about playing for his father. “Sometimes it feels like he’s always looking at me. There’s a lot of pressure … There’s a lot to live up to because there’s a standard in society that everyone thinks the coach’s son has to be good. I feel like there’s a lot of pressure to live up to that.”
But it’s a pressure that Ty has embraced.
“I don’t really know (any different),” Ty Maul said. “He’s been my coach literally my entire life. So, I don’t really know what it’s like to not have him as a coach and not be my dad.
“I don’t know if there’s anything that I do to try to take the pressure off. I’m more just trying to live up to it. I’m working to get there. Absolutely, (it drives me).”
Ty is the oldest of four siblings. His brother, Wes, is a freshman followed by fifth-grader Jake and second-grader Claire.
“(Ty) dressed last year for every game, but he only got in about three or four games,” coach Maul said. “When you coach a kid, everything has to be earned. You don’t want any assumption by anyone on the team that he gets any special privileges or any minutes that he hasn’t earned first.
Hilliard Darby’s Ty Maul drives to the basket during a recent game at Darby. Photo: Kevin Lam
“Being in the gym with him every day – he works at it. He really committed in the offseason to change his body and work on different parts of his game. It’s been cool to see, obviously as a dad, but also as a head coach.”
Chris Maul sought advice from others on how to handle the situation.
“I’ve talked to a lot of dads that coached their kids – Tom Sauder (the former Worthington Kilbourne boys coach), Tony Staub at Gahanna and even Ed Calo (at Westerville South) – they’ve all had kids come through,” Maul said. “But the best advice I got was from Darby’s baseball coach, Chris Fugitt. His son played for him and he told me that he told his assistants that they would tell him when they felt like his son (Justin, a 2017 graduate) was ready for varsity (baseball).
“So, last year, I told my two assistants (Jim VanWinkle and Andrew Kisner) that until you think he should play varsity, then I’m not going to move him up. I (wasn’t) just going to move my kid up – I needed to make sure that I was being true to (my staff’s) thoughts because I trust the guys that I coach with.”
‘You have to make it fun’
Pickerington Central girls coach Chris Wallace has plenty of experience coaching his daughters. Four of the five of them played basketball with the Tigers.
Over the years, he’s developed one major rule in keeping the game fun for his children.
“I don’t talk basketball at home unless she brings it up,” Wallace said. When we’re at the court or in the gym, we discuss basketball like I would with any other player and I treat them like any other player.”
Wallace has two daughters on this year’s team. Berry, a senior forward who is committed to play at Illinois, and Blossom is a sophomore guard/forward.
“(Berry) is a senior and going to Illinois and she has balance (between life and basketball),” Chris Wallace said. “She loves the game, she studies the game and she’s hard on herself.”
Pickerington Central’s Berry Wallace shoots over Reynoldsburg’s Sa’Mahn Johnson on Nov. 30. Photo: John Hulkenberg
Wallace is in his third season as the Central’s head coach after previously serving as an assistant under Johnathan Hedgepeth since 2015 where he coached his second-oldest daughter, Bexley. A 2018 graduate, who led Central to a state title her senior season, Bexley went on to play collegiately at Penn State and Kent State.
He also coached Brooklyn, who graduated in 2022 and is currently a student at Ohio State.
His oldest daughter, Bailey, a 2014 Pickerington North graduate, didn’t play basketball, opting for track and cross country instead.
Chris Wallace played baseball in the New York Yankees organization for five seasons after playing at Wright State.
Bexley was already garnering plenty of attention from major Division I colleges before she played her first game with Tigers.
“By the time she was a senior, the passion for it wasn’t there,” Chris said. “I think we just did a little bit too much for her at a young age. My next daughter (Brooklyn) was about 6-foot-2 and could have gone to college and played. But we communicated with her early on and (asked), ‘What are your goals? Do you really want to play in college?’ She said, ‘Dad, I just want to be a part of the team.’
“Once you go through high school and into college and you’ve fallen out of love with it. I asked myself if it’s all worth it if I ruin my relationship with my daughter and if I don’t have her loving the game. So, what I learned from it is that you have to make it fun.”
It’s been a difficult journey for her so far.
“It’s a lot of pressure on her,” Chris Wallace said. “She doesn’t want to make mistakes and she’s super hard on herself because she wants to be perfect. She’s got some good offers – some Big East schools and some MAC schools. If she hits her full potential, she can get recruited by anybody in the country.
“She’s 6-1 and she’s a track star. She won the state in the 400 (meters). She can fly and she has a motor and she can guard all five positions in high school. I can put her on a point guard who’s 5-5 or a (post) that’s 6-3.”
Blossom credits her defensive acumen to her father.
“We’re very aggressive and he takes pride in defense and that’s my main thing – I get that from him,” Blossom Wallace said. “I think each one of us (sisters) have had a different experience, so I think it’s been different for all of us.”
Editor’s note: This is the first of a two-part story. Please read Part 2 here.
Pickerington Central’s Berry Wallace goes up for a shot against host Reynoldsburg on Nov. 30. Photo: John Hulkenberg