Xenia’s Kent Anderson coaches during the boys basketball game between Xenia and Fairborn last Friday night at Baker Memorial Field House in Xenia. Anderson is in his first season with the Xenia boys, while Jonathan Snyder has taken over as head coach of the Xenia girls. The two teams are a combined 20-10 this season.
XENIA — Both Jon Snyder and Kent Anderson are experiencing new seasons on the Xenia Buccaneers sidelines, but neither of the new Xenia basketball head coaches is new to the game.
Snyder, the new Buccaneers girls’ basketball coach, has been involved with Xenia basketball for 12 years on multiple levels. His first coaching job was at what are now Warner Middle School coaching 8th graders.
“I just thought I’d give [coaching] a shot and see what happens,” Snyder said, “and every year I just got more and more into it.”
Anderson, the new Buccaneers boys’ coach, has a coaching resume that stretches back 24 years. But his love of basketball goes back even further.
“Just watching my father and the way he conducted himself both as a teacher and a coach and the enjoyment he seemed to gain from that — it was about my senior year of high school — and I realized that was something I wanted to do.”
And coach he did. Last year Anderson left the Xenia Buccaneers girls’ basketball team with a 20-2 season and a Greater Western Ohio Conference (GWOC) South Division title.
He’s also been named 1993’s Ohio High School Athletic Association’s Coach of the year.
So how did he find the switch from the Lady Bucs to the boys basketball team?
“Honestly it wasn’t an easy transition,” said Anderson. “It was difficult knowing what we left on the girls’ side.”
So far this year, Anderson’s boys have a 3-2 GWOC record and sole possession of second place in the South Division. And the boys hold a commanding 8-6 overall record.
With so many years coaching under their collective belt, both coaches find Xenia high school basketball to be very different from their other coaching experiences.
“The expectations are already here to win. It’s not like I have to build a program—I have to put my impression on the program,” said Snyder of the Xenia program left to him by the former girl’s basketball head coach, Anderson.
For Anderson, what makes Xenia’s basketball program different is “the overall sense of community.”
“We probably have one of the most diverse populations in a lot of areas, not just in Greene County, with the makeup of our kids—a lot of socio-economic differences, some racial differences, and a lot of things that I really think that make us a unique and special school. All of our kids can come from those many different backgrounds and still get along while they’re doing it and bring it all together. I think that’s what makes this place special.”
Though it may be too early to get a grasp on Snyder’s methods, his 12-4 season speaks for itself.
Snyder’s Lady Bucs fall in the top three when it comes to the GWOC leader boards for defensive leaders and steals. Three Bucs fill out the top four offensive leaders in the GWOC. And in overall GWOC play, Snyder’s Xenia holds a respectable 4-2 record, so far tied for second in conference play with Miamisburg.
When asked if there is a difference between coaching girls versus boys Snyder said:
“Philosophically you play the same game. Our girls are strong, fast, and athletic and they’re doing the same thing we do for the boys. Same drills, same offense, same defensive concepts—everything’s the same.”
Anderson commends Snyder’s performance thus far. “I think we are starting to see [the girls] play some pretty good basketball,” Anderson said. “I honestly think that if they get after it and continue to get better defensively, I think they’ll be a team that will go very, very deep into the tournament.”
With the Buccaneers’ boys or girls’ basketball teams hunger for victory not yet sated, the pressure is on for the teams to perform. Can they step up their game and become the champions that their coaches want them to be?
“We have the talent and if we maximize our potential we can win a lot of games,” Snyder said.
For Anderson, his goal is to see his boys’ basketball team “mature as young men and to mature as basketball players,” he said. “That’s been the most rewarding thing, to see us grow in the last three months.”
Wins aren’t the only thing these two coaches wish to impress upon their players. Anderson would like for all his players to see that he “cared about them as people, as players, and as men.”
Snyder wants his girls to “be dedicated in the off-season and walk out of [Xenia’s] program and be college ready. And I’d like to see us win close games.”
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