MOSER STEPS DOWN FROM HEAD COACH

BY MALLORY GERSCHUTZ

After five years of head coaching Wadsworth High School basketball, Michael Moser has stepped down.

For the past 18 years, Moser has coached at a variety of levels for both Highland and Wadsworth high schools. He spent the last five years of his coaching career with the WHS varsity men’s basketball team, which went 5264 this season.

Moser ultimately decided that the mental and physical strain had become too much to continue coaching at the high school level. It became difficult splitting time between coaching obligations and his own kids’ activities.

“I think the biggest struggle was trying to find the balance of being a dad of four kids and having a family,” Moser said. “As my kids got older, that became a challenge.”

Chad Bever, WHS JV boys basketball coach has experience as a head coach at other schools from years past.

“It’s such a big time commitment as head coach, it takes away from your family, and your personal time.”

Another obstacle was Moser’s absence from the high school building.

Currently, he is the PE teacher at Wadsworth Middle School, and while still being in the district, he is mostly unavailable during the school day to his student athletes. Moser values his time with the athletes, helping them to grow individually as people.

“Relationships, integrity and character were incredibly important to him, and I think he made that known to each one of the players,” Bever said. “He made it very clear that he cared about them as people more than he cared about them as basketball players.”

The biggest thing Moser takes away from his time coaching is the relationships with his players.

“I love the kids that will come back five, ten, and even fifteen years down the road that I’m still talking with,” Moser said. “Watching them grow up and become parents with kids of their own, that’s really cool.”

Moser made a great impact on every athlete he coached over the years.

“I think Coach Moser was a great leader of young men,” Bever said. “I think he set a good example of what kind of person to be, he was a great role model for them.”

With his time off, Moser plans to continue coaching his two younger kids, as well as his daughter’s AAU team. Looking forward, he would love to coach on the high school level again if an opportunity were to present itself

The position for head coach is still undecided. Administration is going through the interview process and the final decision should be made by Dr. Hill within a few weeks.

Moser was a leader and good example to the team around him, as well as the rest of the coaching staff, and he will carry that into his teaching career.

“He’s a good man, it was nice to be able to work with him this year,” Bever said.