JERRY CITY — In the Reynolds family, the ability to play and coach basketball must be inherited because it’s been going on for over a half century and continues today.

After 27 years as a head basketball coach, Elmwood girls coach Doug Reynolds is retiring, but that does not mean there won’t be a Reynolds family member coaching somewhere.

Doug played for his father, Elmwood coach Charlie Reynolds, and Doug’s daughter is coaching junior high basketball in the Dublin school system.

Like any successful coach will tell you, Reynolds said it is “about the kids.”

“It’s just a joy going to practice and seeing kids get better. One thing that I never minded was if it was boys or girls,” Reynolds said.

“It was just, ’Can this player get better?’ That was an enjoyment to see when that light went off and they’d have a big game and they realized, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ That’s a joy.”

Reynolds found a way for every player to contribute, and Reynolds knew how to use their skills to the team’s advantage.

“I had many great kids, maybe not in their scoring, but it’s just in what they did. It could have been rebounding, it could have been defense,” Reynolds said.

“That is what makes these teams so special. When you had the years you made the districts, you won the league, you had some really good kids. That’s what you get in in our size high school.

“It’s not every year you are going to have super talented athletes. But I’ll tell you what they’ve all worked hard and enjoyed every minute.”

Father Charlie was the influence

In 1974, as a senior at Elmwood, Reynolds’ career high was scoring 42 against Suburban Lakes League foe Lakota and 34 against Woodmore. He is sixth all-time in career scoring at Elmwood with 1,015 points.

He is also the all-time leading career average rebounder, grabbing 12.4 caroms per game. The 1974 team finished 14-6 and was SLL runner-up behind Class AA state final four qualifier Genoa.

After playing four years for his father, Doug began as an assistant junior varsity boys coach at Hopewell-Loudon.

Reynolds then became the Chieftains’ head girls coach for eight seasons, came home to coach Elmwood boys for eight seasons, and he has coached the Elmwood girls the past 11 seasons.

He has a career record of 437-193. At Hopewell, his teams were 157-36 and won a state championship. His Elmwood boys teams were 109-66 and his girls teams were 171-91.

But it began as a youth at home growing up with his father Charlie, who was 130-134 from 1967-80 when the Royals played in the Northern Lakes League and SLL. Charlie passed away in 2019 at age 95.

“He was a huge influence. He didn’t push you, but he knew that I wanted it, so he would keep me working,” Doug said.

“We grew up on a farm and we had 100 head of cattle, and we’d go over and feed the cattle, and we had two baskets that he made when he was over at (former Wood County high school) Westwood as a coach.

“We’d go up there and he would show me things. When I was getting older and into high school then, it would have been like when I played against my son,” Reynolds continued. “He would back me down into that post pretty good.

“I learned so much from him. We’d talk a lot through the years about my coaching and after a loss he’d say, ‘Do you still want to get back in the gym?’ and I’d say, ‘Yep.’ He’d say, ‘That’s the attitude you have to have.’

“You just have to forget that loss and on go on but learn from it. Those kinds of things — I learned a lot from him. I wish he could have seen us these last two years — he would have really enjoyed this team.”

Coaching the Reynolds kids

Doug’s son Dustin, a four-year standout, scored 1,226 career points and he led Elmwood to its first SLL title since 1976. The 18-6 Royals qualified for the regional tournament his sophomore year.

Dustin’s junior and senior years the Royals won SLL championships, finishing 16-6 and 19-3.

Dustin is second on Elmwood’s all-time scoring list behind (1977 graduate) Tom Barringer (1,263) and scored a career high 35 against Fostoria St. Wendelin in 2007.

“I enjoyed coaching my own kids. That was the joy that some can’t get,” Reynolds said. “It’s hard on the kid sometimes, but they were good enough that both of my daughters and my son that, hey, everybody knew they needed to be on the floor. You’ve always got to have more than one (standout player) and we had that.”

he said his bond with his coaches was always important, too. He said sometimes they would draw back on his father Charlie when questioning his strategy, and Doug listened.

“Working with my coaches over the years, you have a bond there with the other coaches you coach with. It was just enjoyable going to practice and enjoyed every minute of it,” Reynolds said.

“It’s funny my assistant coach the last 11 years, Russ Long, he was one year in front of me (in high school) and we both played for my dad, and Russ would say, ‘Hey, your dad would not go for this’ or something like that.”

When Reynolds took the job coaching at Hopewell, it was a learning experience for him, too, but it did not take long for the Chieftains to become successful.

“That was a great way to start my career. The first couple years we weren’t great. We were probably 50-50, but things kept growing. Then, it took off,” Reynolds said.

“The sports over there, the people are just into the sports. The kids buy into it. We won a sectional title that they hadn’t done in a while, then before you know it, they won the district title.

“Then I had my daughter when she was a freshman, and it was easy to remember — it was the first time we got to the regional. After that, we were down to the state two years and got runner-up and got the state championship in ’99. There was only year there where we got beat in the district tournament.

“I look at that, and we won 54 league games in a row. What was amazing at that school those girls came up from JV, and we practiced JV against varsity every day, and that’s the way I’ve done it with the girls.

“Those JV girls took some knocks, but that next year they just stepped right in. Then, we had a running game going and a pressing game and it really worked well.”

Elmwood’s ‘cupboard not bare’

Reynolds lives in Portage with his wife Debbie, and they have three adult children, Diondra, Danielle and Dustin, who were all standout players. Doug says Debbie has been his “support system.”

Reynolds teaches middle school physical education in the Elmwood district, but he said it’s time to step down and spend time with his wife, children and grandchildren. He will officially retire on May 31.

He wishes his Elmwood girls team could have reached the regional tournament, but he’s not leaving the cupboard bare for the next guy, either.

“In my 11 years, we won six league titles (won or shared), we’ve been to the district finals four times, and we could not make it beyond the finals,” Reynolds said.

“There has to be a time. I’d have a great team coming back this year, and I told them that. I said, ‘I’m expecting the same thing I expected out of this year’s team.’

“There are a lot of letter winners coming back, but it’s one of those things. You say, ‘I’ll finish out with that group, then before you know it, you have another, then another, so some year you have to pull the plug, and this is it.

“My wife and I have four grandkids right now — they are old enough and they are playing in sports, and we want to do some time in Florida over the winter.”