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»» RELATED: Girls preseason basketball rankings
• Bradford: Chris Besecker was promoted after six seasons as an assistant. He succeeds Patrick McKee, who led the Railroaders the previous six seasons. Besecker previously was Covington’s head coach for 23 seasons (344-189).
• Cin. Christian: Terrence Mitchell succeeds Paul Owens.
• Dayton Christian: Kathy Hill succeeds Paul Orme, who retired after nine seasons as the Warriors coach. Hill previously was Centerville’s head coach and twice was a GWOC coach of the year.
• Dunbar: Antoine Sain succeeds Jim Cole. Sain also is a Wolverines football assistant and head girls track coach.
• Fairborn: Jim Cole succeeds Billy Harchick, who led the Skyhawks for two seasons. Cole previously was Dunbar’s girls coach and led the Wolverines to a City League title last season.
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»» RELATED: Area teams in state semifinals
• Fairbanks: Landon Fraker succeeds Brock Oakes. Fraker previously was coach at Buckeye Valley.
• Fairmont: Jeremey Finn is the third coach since last season. He was Oakwood’s girls coach the previous season, was a Fairmont boys assistant from 2005-09 and was the Stebbins boys head coach for seven seasons. He succeeds Kyle Boze, whose flareup of congenital heart disease caused him to resign in early August. Boze succeeded Lacy Drake, who resigned after five seasons.
• Greenon: Lonnie Robinson was promoted to succeed Gary Falkenbach, who resigned after 11 seasons. Led the Knights to three CBC Mad River Division titles and were 10-13 in his final season.
• Kenton Ridge: Matt McCurdy resigned after one season to succeed Brian Hecker as Southeastern’s boys coach.
• Lakota East: Gideon Dudgeon resigned after two losing seasons (11-36 overall, 10-22 GMC); succeeded by former McAuley and Colerain coach Dan Wallace. Previously, Dudgeon was Hamilton’s coach.
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»» RELATED: Top Southwest District honors for area players, coaches
• Mississinawa Valley: Michael Paige succeeds Vance Venesky, who resigned after one winless season (0-23). It’s the third head coach in as many seasons for the Blackhawks. Paige was a girls assistant at National Trail last season and spent 12 seasons coaching Butler boys teams at various levels.
• National Trail: James Byrd was promoted to succeed Michael Paige, who resigned after one season (5-17). Byrd was a middle school coach and is a 1998 National Trail grad.
• Northwestern: Rich Bagienski takes over with extensive head coach experience at Indiana.
• Oakwood: Matt Salyer succeeds Jeremey Finn, who resigned to succeed Kyle Boze at Fairmont.
• Piqua: Jon Dolph succeeds Brian Gillespie. A former standout football and basketball player at Piqua, Dolph previously was the Indians’ freshman boys coach. Piqua hasn’t had a winning season since 1999-00.
»» RELATED: List of area seniors who signed
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• Southeastern: Matt Harner succeeds Bob Wehner, who resigned after one season (7-17). Previously, Wehner had a long run at Jonathan Alder. Harner, a standout at Cedarville and Cedarville University, has been a high school boys assistant in Dallas, a high school girls coach in Michigan, a two-year men’s assistant at Oklahoma Wesleyan and a club coach for all ages the past year and a half in the Dallas area.
• Springfield Shawnee: Kari Cooper succeeds Blake Garberich, who resigned after five seasons. The victory total was the second most in school history. Cooper previously was the head coach at Northeastern from 2006-11 and Southeastern from 2013-15.
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• Urbana: Amanda Mounce succeeds Bill “Skeeter” Moss, who died in mid-December in his 31st season coaching the Hillclimbers.
• West Carrollton: Mike Patton was promoted and succeeds Joseph Washington, who resigned.
»» RELATED: Lebanon leaving GWOC
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