The Minerva Lions have found a new basketball coach for the upcoming season, and they didn’t have to look too far.
The school district announced Friday morning that Rich Hart was named the district’s next boys basketball coach.
Hart is a familiar face to the program, previously serving as the head coach and most recently coaching the freshman boys basketball team and serving as an assistant basketball coach at Minerva.
The veteran coach has 28 years of head coaching experience, with most of those years being at Minerva. He did coach for a short stint at Salem back in 2014.
Hart replaces Shawn Green who recently resigned from his position at Minerva to coach the Strasburg Tigers boys basketball team.
Hart steps back into the role with over 300 wins and is already Minerva’s winningest boys basketball coach.
He is also a member of the Minerva Athletic Hall of Fame and the Stark County Amateur Hall of Fame.
Hart resides in Minerva with his wife Cathy.