Nordonia High School has hired Darin Ford to serve as its boys basketball coach.
Ford, 29, has coached at the high school and college levels, with stints in Ohio, Illinois, New York, Florida and Kansas. He was an assistant coach at Westlake High School for the past two seasons.
Ford has a 41-29 record in three seasons as a high school head coach in New York and Florida.
“It checked all of the boxes on the surface,” Ford said of Nordonia. “It is a local opportunity where I know the league is competitive and where I know there are good players and good coaches. This is the type of league you want to be in. Of course, I was familiar with a little bit of their talent from being around Northeast Ohio basketball.
“Once I did more research where I asked around, I watched film, I found the right people to ask questions and get more information, it became very apparent to me that I think we can win big at Nordonia and compete. There is already a great youth program in place, too, so that was a part of it as well. There is a great academic and athletic culture at Nordonia where that type of stuff matters.
“Once I started talking to more people in the district, such as our athletic director and the people on the hiring committee, it became very apparent to me that people care, people want to win and there is a lot of support.”
Ford takes over Nordonia’s program after Dominique Sanders left after five seasons to be the Twinsburg boys basketball coach. Sanders is a Twinsburg teacher who played basketball for the Tigers and graduated in 2008.
Sanders guided Nordonia to a Division I district final appearance in 2023 and a 53-59 record from 2019-2024. He helped Twinsburg win a Northeast Ohio Conference River Division championship as a starting point guard in 2008 and was a first-team all-league selection.
“I am extremely excited about what Darin is going to bring to the boys basketball program,” Nordonia athletic director Rob Eckenrode said. “The energy and enthusiasm that he showed us in the interview process was impressive. Getting to meet him and learning more about him and his family has been great.
“We were left in kind of a tough situation when coach Sanders left. He did a great job for us for the last five years, but I couldn’t be more pleased with what coach Ford is going to bring to the program.”
Darin Ford is the oldest son of former Kent State University men’s basketball coach Geno Ford
The last name Ford should sound familiar to basketball fans.
Darin’s grandfather, Gene Ford, was a successful coach for over 40 years at Cambridge High School and Muskingum University.
Darin’s father, Geno Ford, and Darin’s uncle, Dustin Ford, each played basketball at Cambridge and Ohio University.
Geno Ford is Stony Brook’s men’s basketball coach after stints at Kent State and Bradley. Dustin Ford is a men’s basketball assistant coach at the University of Akron after stints at Illinois, Ohio and Western Carolina.
Darin’s brother, David Ford, is Stony Brook’s Director of Player Development. Their great uncle, Ed DiGenova, also coached basketball at Ohio Dominican and Muskingum.
“Coaching is what I always wanted to do,” Darin Ford said. “I learned what it takes to win from my family and you learn how to carry yourself and think and how to operate in that day-to-day competition.
“… I am so fortunate to obviously watch my grandpa coach, my dad coach, my uncle coach and all the other people that I have worked for. I took bits and pieces from all of them and through that try to make your own way with it and have fun with it. I am extremely thankful. This is not work for me. It is a labor of love.”
Darin Ford attended Rootstown High School for one year when his father was Kent State’s men’s basketball coach and then moved to Illinois when his dad took the Bradley job. Darin graduated from Dunlap High School in December of 2013.
Darin, the oldest of Geno and Traci Ford’s two children, earned a bachelors degree from Stony Brook in 2018 and a masters degree from Akron in 2020.
Darin Ford started coaching basketball with an AAU team in Illinois when he was in high school in 2012. He served as a Bradley student manager for the 2014-2015 season, coached at Indian River State College in Florida for the 2015-2016 season and was a Stony Brook student manager for the 2016-2017 season.
At the age of 22, he was named a varsity head coach at Harborfields High School in New York and served in that role for two seasons, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019.
Akron coach John Groce hired Ford to be a graduate assistant for the 2019-2020 season. Ford was an assistant coach at Pratt Community College in Kansas for the 2020-2021 season, was the head coach at Mosley High School in Florida for the 2021-2022 season and was an assistant at Westlake for the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 seasons.
“Darin is extremely energetic,” Eckenrode said. “I think he is going to do some really special things for us. He checks all of the boxes of what I was looking for when I was looking for a new coach. Besides the enthusiasm and energy, his level of knowledge of the game is outstanding. He has been in the gym since he could walk. How could you not be with his grandfather and his father and their backgrounds? We are really excited to get the basketball season going.”
Ford, whose wife is Amanda, is in his second year working as a men’s basketball recruiting coach for NCSA College recruiting, a company connected with IMG Academy in Florida.
“Our primary goal is to help kids play college athletics,” Ford said.
Michael Beaven can be reached by email at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal.com and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.