By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

John Misenko is excited and determined.

He plans to use both to establish consistency for a program that has now had three coaches in the last six seasons.

He does not want to stop there, though.

Misenko has a vision to rebuild a winning culture.

“I am really excited for the opportunity to coach at Field High School. The girls are highly motivated to succeed, work hard and want to get better everyday,” Misenko said. “The parents have been super supportive of me and my coaching staff and how we are trying to change the culture and expectations for the Field girls basketball program.”

Misenko, who is a social studies teacher at Kenston High School, comes to Field after coaching at Kenston the last five seasons. His Bombers combined to go 80-35 and won the school’s only district championship in history in 2017-18.

During the same five-year span, Field has gone 42-70.

The Falcons were 8-15 overall last season and were 4-9 in the Metro Athletic Conference, with the four wins coming against teams that combined to win 13 games during the 2021-22 season.

None of it fazes Misenko, whose staff includes JV and varsity assistant Mariah Seidler and varsity assistant Tessa Ludwick, because he sees a young team with talent and perseverance.

“I think we have the talent and potential to grow and get better and that is really exciting,” he said.

Misenko’s background starts with his high-school playing days at Bedford St. Peter Chanel. During his senior season, his team advanced to the state Final Four, but lost in heartbreaking fashion on a buzzer-beating shot by Archbold.

His coaching career began as a student-teacher at Twinsburg with the girls basketball team. He coached the Maple Heights boys basketball program for three years, JV girls basketball at Kenston for one year, varsity assistant at Aurora for three seasons, coached at Improv AAU for three years before beginning his five-year stretch at Kenston.

Along the way, Misenko has developed a clear and direct coaching philosophy.

“We want to play hard, play fast, attack on offense and be aggressive on both offense and defense,” he said.

But he was also quick to remind that “basketball also needs to be fun.”

And he does not want to harbor that fun to his high school program only. Misenko wants to reach all levels of the Field girls basketball program.

“I plan on being at Field as long as they want me to be here. With that being said, I need to work with all levels of basketball throughout the district,” he said. “I want to bring back our summer youth camp, so I can get to know the girls in the younger grades. I also want to work with our middle-school players and coaches so that they know what to expect at the high school. I want to bring the high-school team to some of the middle-school games so that we can all get to know each other, as well as support one another.”