Even though he was an athletic child and teen, Jeff Boals had never considered a career in athletics. In fact, he was a biology major in college.
“I ended up literally falling into coaching,” says New Albany resident Boals, assistant head coach for The Ohio State University basketball team.
Late in his last collegiate basketball season at Ohio University, Boals blew out his ACL for the third time, effectively ending his prominent athletic career. After one of the team’s assistant coaches left at the end of the year, head coach Larry Hunter asked Boals if he’d be interested in coaching.
“I had ambitions to be a physical therapist. But like any 22-year-old, I had no real idea what I wanted to do. I was always sort of a coach on the floor, I had a good IQ, knew the game well. So I said, ‘Sure,’” Boals says.
Growing up in the small town of Magnolia, Ohio, Boals played basketball at Division III Sandy Valley High School and flourished athletically in multiple sports, leading to his position on OU’s basketball team.
Memories of his high school coach, Bob Delap, made a big impact on Boals’ early coaching career.
“Delap taught the game the right way. Our teams always got better throughout the course of the season,” Boals says.
Boals was a two-time captain of the OU basketball team, leading the squad to the 1994 MAC tournament. But he had resigned himself to being done with the sports world after college, and it was only after Hunter provided the opportunity that he even thought about it.
“I had no intentions to be involved with sports later on in life. I loved them and played a bunch of them, but I was really utilizing coaching to get my graduate degree and ended up enjoying it and fortunately made it a career.”
Currently in his 19th season as a coach – his fifth at Ohio State – Boals saw success leading up to his position on the OSU basketball team. At Akron University, Boals helped lead the Zips to a MAC East Division title and consecutive appearances in the MAC Championship game in 2007 and 2008. Boals ended his career there as the associate head coach.
After Archie Miller left the Ohio State Basketball program in 2009, head coach Thad Matta said he wanted someone tough for an assistant basketball coach, and Boals fit the bill nicely.
As one of three OSU assistant coaches, Boals focuses on recruiting, defense, community relations and individual workouts. Concern for individual workouts and the overall health of players is an aspect of his position he takes very seriously.
“As a college athlete, your body is a temple. It is amazing how what you put in your body, how you treat your body can impact the way you play,” Boals says. “We have a nutritionist, a strength and conditioning coach, and we do a great job of educating our guys on body fat, good foods to eat, bad foods to eat. Our nutritionist takes the players to the grocery store and will take them down the aisle and teach them how to read a label. We have training table meals for them where our athletic trainer will be involved. We know we can’t control what they eat 24 hours a day, but the bigger thing is to educate them.”
While some athletes may want to be self-centered as players or may not buy into the team mentality, and Boals finds the greatest personal reward in helping the team become cohesive.
“A lot of times when you have 13 kids on scholarship, most of them come from a situation where they (were) the best player on their team. They come in with accolades. The biggest challenge is to form 13 guys into one unit,” Boals says. “We always say, ‘It’s not the most talented team, it’s the best team that wins games,’ and chemistry is huge.”
The members of the 2013 team signed a poster pledging commitment to several “core values”: humility, trust, passion, thankfulness, unity, servanthood, respect and accountability. This declaration of core values is part of what Boals considers the best part about coaching – helping transform young men’s lives.
“It’s a neat process to see different kids from different backgrounds molded into one cohesive unit. Then you get to see the kid’s transformation, coming in at 18 and leaving as a 22-year-old ready for the real world. Knowing that you had some small part of kind of helping him grow is incredible,” he says.
And the team also gives back in unique and indirect ways that attribute to Boals’ own health and well-being.
“As a coach, one of the tough things is making time for yourself. You are traveling a lot, not sleeping, not eating the best stuff. But being around young guys keeps you young, active and more inclined to get involved,” he says.
It’s important that he stays active because between coaching, his children, a wife of 12 years and a dog, Rebound, Boals rarely has time for himself.
“I enjoy golfing, being with my family. I’m gone so much, so I want to spend as much time with my family as possible. I try to get to as many of my kids’ sporting events as I can. Coach Matta is great. … He always says, ‘Spend as much time with your kids as you can.’”
Boals wants to make sure his own children grow up active and live healthful lifestyles, too.
“I think the biggest thing is to be active and to be involved. In today’s society, these kids are all techies with Playstations, Xboxes and iPhones,” Boals says. “Chase, 7, plays flag football, basketball and swims. Really, he does whatever is in-season. My daughter, Sydney, 10, swims and does gymnastics. My wife, Katie, and I try to instill the eating aspect to my son, but he’s just a kid, and if he could eat sugar all day, he would,” he adds, laughing.
When it comes to his own personal fitness, Boals is reluctant to play full-on basketball after multiple injuries and surgeries throughout the years, but he will still sneak in a few drills and a pick-up game every so often, sometimes even with OSU alumni and former players.
These long-lasting relationships with players are important, he says, and transcend the sports barrier.
“The majority of these kids won’t play professionally. We’re trying to get these kids to realize that there is more to it than basketball.”
David Allen is a New Albany resident and a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at laurand@cityscenemediagroup.com.
