By Tom Nader

Publisher and Editor

A pair of familiar faces will begin new roles at Crestwood for the 2025-26 school year.

Brittany (Mayle) Dye was recently named the district’s new Athletic Director and Andrew Mertz was selected as the Red Devils’ new boys basketball head coach.

Dye is a Crestwood graduate (Class of 2005) and was previously a girls basketball and volleyball coach for the Red Devils.

She was most recently the men’s and women’s volleyball head coach at Hiram College — positions she had to step down from in order to fulfill the responsibilities of being the Athletic Director.

Dye replaces Troy Spiker, who announced his resignation at the end of the 2024-25 school year after accepting a position at Orrville High School.

Mertz takes over for Josh Jakacki, who resigned at the end of the year and was also recently named the new boys basketball coach at Kenston High School.

Mertz has spent the past eight years coaching boys and girls basketball at the youth level, while also being active in coaching for youth baseball and football. Most recently, Mertz has spent the last three years as an assistant coach for the Crestwood Middle School boys basketball team.

ANDREW MERTZ

“I am honored and excited to be named the new varsity basketball coach at Crestwood High School,” Mertz said. “My family and I have called Mantua home for the past eight years and having watched so many of these young athletes grow up through our community, it is truly rewarding to step into this leadership role.

“Coaching and developing young athletes are passions of mine and this opportunity to guide our players at the high-school level was an easy decision for me — especially knowing how much potential exists within our program.”

ROOTSTOWN FOOTBALL SCHEDULE

Portage Sports will soon spotlight all of the high school football schedules for the upcoming 2025 season, but there has been a special intrigue to the slate of the Rootstown Rovers.

The Rovers will compete in the Chagrin Valley Conference for the first time this fall, leaving the dissolved Portage Trail Conference.

Rootstown first announced its move to the CVC in October (2024), with Athletic Director Keith  Waesch including that the district signed a one-year contract with the league.

“The CVC gives our student-athletes more opportunities than what we currently have in the PTC landscape in recent years,” Waesch said.

Rootstown was a longstanding member of the Portage County League, which formed in 1922, then Rootstown joined in 1923. Rootstown was then a founding member of the Portage Trail Conference in 2005.

It will be the first time in the district’s history that it will compete outside of a league based out of Portage County.

“We have been very loyal to the PTC since movement began a handful of years ago,” Waesch said. “In fact, we were the lone (remaining) school that resided in Portage County.”

Here is a look at the Rovers’ football schedule for the 2025 season.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

Many Portage County girls basketball players and fans must be excited to hear the news that Cleveland will be the home of a new WNBA franchise beginning for the 2028 season.

The team, unnamed as of yet, will play its home games at Rocket Arena in downtown Cleveland.

“The WNBA’s return to Cleveland marks a pivotal moment for women’s sports,” Rock Entertainment Group Chairman Dan Gilbert said. “Years from now, we will reflect on this day as a truly monumental point in Cleveland sporting history.”

Cleveland was the home of a founding member of the WNBA with the Cleveland Rockers, which were part of the league from 1997 through 2003.

ALUMNI SOCCER

A pair of alumni boys soccer games are upcoming.

Rootstown’s Ryan Streem Memorial alumni soccer game will be played on July 20 at Robert C. Dunn Field at Rootstown High School, with a 6 p.m. start planned.

Southeast will host its annual boys soccer alumni game on Sunday, Aug. 2, also with a 6 p.m. start at Freedom Field at Southeast High School.