In 1970, as a sophomore, he sat on the bench in the first high school game at UD Arena when the Eagles beat Roth and future Dayton star Donald Smith. Later that year he sat on the bench at St. John and watched the Eagles thump Rossford 69-47 for a second state title led by future Buckeye Dan Gerhard.
“I had the best seat in the house,” Staley said. “Those guys are my heroes.”
Those years put Staley on the path to becoming the Chaminade Julienne head coach from 1986-2019. During those 34 years he won 452 games, nine district titles and four regional titles, one each in four consecutive decades. On Saturday he will be inducted into the Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame.
“These kind of awards are really program awards,” Staley said. “You don’t win them without great players, you don’t win them without great assistant coaches. It’s a recognition of the number of years I coached, but as far as performance, you share that.”
Staley played for Turvene and then tried to play at Ohio Northern. But a knee injury that began his senior year of high school kept him out of action for two years and ended his playing career. He finished college at Wright State. Jim Staley, three years older, coached the freshman team at Wilmington High School and asked his brother to come and help while he finished college. Four years with his brother, the second two with the varsity after Jim moved up, were formative years.
“We were having the time of our life, and we didn’t half know what we were doing,” Joe Staley said. “We were learning as we went.”
Jim went on to coach at Trotwood-Madison and Centerville and amass 540 victories. He retired in 2012 and was inducted into the hall of fame in 2014. The Staleys are the second set of brothers to be so honored.
“These kinds of honors don’t speak to just accomplishment,” Jim Staley said. “They speak to your ability to survive in a profession that survival is not great in. And he stayed at one school during that whole time, which is really pretty incredible.”
Before Joe returned to CJ, he spent three years under Turvene at West Carrollton and three years under future rival and Hall of Famer Joe Petrocelli at Alter. As head coaches the Staley brothers met on several occasions. There were some upsets.
“We were 12 years old in the backyard again,” Joe Staley said. “Very, very, very competitive, and we ended up being pretty even.”
Joe Staley’s early years at CJ echoed Turvene’s tenure. The Eagles went to state in 1989 behind the play and leadership of Al Sicard and finished second in 1991. Then a series of losing seasons followed. Success eventually returned and with it state berths in 2004 and 2015. And the Alter rivalry, which the Knights had dominated for years, got a little closer with Staley going 32-42.
“He persevered and wouldn’t run away from that challenge, and on the other side of it we started winning again and he ended up having a great career,” said current Eagles coach Charlie Szabo who played for Staley during the lean years.
Szabo started under Staley as an assistant coach in 2004 and replaced him in 2020. He’s built on his mentor’s success with state tournament trips in 2021 and this past season.
“He loves the game of basketball, and he makes you love the game of basketball and everything about it,” Szabo said. “He made you want to put in the time. He is the ultimate grinder. He just had so much respect for the coaching profession. When you coached with him you didn’t have a choice but to appreciate it with him.”
Staley also passed on his love for the game and coaching to his sons. Joe Staley Jr. and John Staley played for their dad on one of his best teams in 2010 that included future Wright State star Mark Vest. Joe Jr. coached at CJ for 11 years with his dad and continues there under Szabo. John is the JV coach at Upper Arlington.
“Basketball was everything in our house,” Joe Staley Jr. said. “My brother and I were ball boys when we were little, and mom would put all five of us kids in the van and we’d get down there in time for varsity warmups so we could help out.”
Joe Staley remembers his kids coloring behind the bench during games. After he and his wife Micky had three daughters, he expected more girls. When the boys came he looked forward to coaching them.
“A true highlight for me is coaching my sons,” he said. “They were good players, they were hard players. Coaching your son is a really, really hard thing to do, but Joe and John made it easy because they did all the little things. It’s pretty neat for a parent to share his passion with his kids.”
Joe Staley Jr. began to realize near the end of his playing days that he wanted to coach with his dad. He marveled at his dad’s dedication and appreciated the relationships he formed with players.
“He’d really challenge them and push them and still do it in in an encouraging way,” Joe Jr. said. “Sometimes he’d be real hard, but players always wanted to run through a wall for him. I find myself trying to emulate what he did as a coach sometimes, especially as far as player relationships go and just trying to get the most out of kids.”
Darnell Hoskins, who played at Wisconsin and Dayton, remembers how Staley got the most out of him. Hoskins was averaging close to 30 points a game his senior season in 1993 when Staley asked for more.
“He says, ‘Let me challenge you to see how many triple doubles you can have before the end of the year. That would entail you making everybody around you better,’” said Hoskins, who indeed had a few triple doubles. “I wanted to attack it, and show him that I could do it because he’s always labeled me the best player he’s ever coached. With that comes a load of responsibility, and he’s always managed to push me in that way.”
When Hoskins returned after 10 years of pro ball in Australia and Europe, he stopped by practice to see how his old coach was doing. They talked and Staley told Hoskins he should coach, but Hoskins said he had no desire. Staley wasn’t finished. He invited Hoskins back to the next practice. After seeing how well Hoskins interacted with the players, Staley told him he would make a good college coach. Hoskins’ answer was the same. Still, Staley invited him back the next Monday.
The conversation didn’t change, and Staley asked Hoskins to be a volunteer coach, come to practice when possible and sit on the bench during games. The next summer Staley asked Hoskins to build a youth program. Hoskins did that for two years. Staley’s next pitch? He told Hoskins he needed to head his own program. That led Hoskins to Springfield to start his head coaching journey in 2008. Then eight years at Thurgood Marshall and two trips to the Division II state tournament, then five seasons at Middletown before going to Northmont where he is entering his third season.
“Coach, from the very first time I met him, has always had a super high level of influence on me,” Hoskins said. “He was able to communicate some things that he saw in me that I never really saw myself. He has an innate ability to be able to do that with anybody he comes in contact with.”
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