NORTH CANTON — The search is over for the next Hoover High School girls basketball head coach, and the Vikings hope they won’t have to search again for quite a while.
The hiring of veteran coach Craig Nettleton was approved by the North Canton City Schools Board of Education on Monday night. Nettleton replaced Jim Gottshall, who stepped down last month after one season as head coach.
Nettleton will be the fourth head coach in four years for the Vikings. Abbey Allerding stepped down in 2021 after nine seasons to focus on her health and family. Josh Mason then coached for one season before taking the head coaching job for the NCAA Division II Tiffin University women’s basketball team. Gottshall guided Hoover to an 8-16 record in his one season.
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Hoover athletic director Tom Oakes said Nettleton quickly rose to the top of 10 candidates who either were interviewed or targeted during the search.
“We’re excited for our young ladies,” Oakes said. “My biggest fear going through this process was I couldn’t do it a fifth time in five years (laughs). I was promised Craig is not a one-and-done guy and that he’s going to be here for the foreseeable future.
“I have a ton of respect for Jim Gottshall. He’s a great man. For whatever reason, he felt the fire and energy wasn’t there anymore and he didn’t want to set the program back by maybe pretending it was there and coming back a second year. He wanted us to find a candidate who wants to work with young ladies and wants to work with them for the foreseeable future. And that certainly is our committee’s prime goal.”
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Nettleton has 26 years of head coaching experience, including 15 as the boys coach at Field High School and another six as the girls coach at Field. She was the girls coach at Ravenna Southeast the last five seasons, including leading the Pirates to a 15-8 record and a second-place finish in the Portage Trail Conference this past season. He guided Southeast to PTC championships in three of his five seasons and has more than 300 career wins to his credit.
Nettleton knows North Canton well. He is a former North Canton resident and all three of his sons graduated from Hoover. His son Dan currently is an assistant football coach with the Vikings for Brian Baum.
Craig Nettleton, a 1982 Northwest High School graduate and a 1986 Malone University graduate, recently retired as the Southeast Middle School principal.
A “Meet the Coach Night” for all girls interested in basketball for next season has been scheduled for Thursday at 5:00 pm The meeting will be held at the Hoover High School media center. Please enter the building through door No. 24. This meeting is for all future Lady Vikings basketball student-athletes entering grades 9-12 next year.
Reach Josh at [email protected]
On Twitter: @jweirREP
This article originally appeared on The Repository: Craig Nettleton hired as North Canton Hoover girls basketball coach
