Hassinger honored as Medina's top coach

Watching Chris Hassinger honored a couple weeks ago as the winningest boys basketball coach in Medina history, with a ceremonial torch being passed from former record-holder Keith Sooy, my professional life passed before my eyes.

It was in the latter half of the 1989-90 basketball season, Hassinger’s senior year at Wadsworth, that I covered my first basketball games involving Medina or Wadsworth. Sooy was in his third year as head coach at Medina.

Hassinger was a backup guard with an all-state mullet and a very approachable kid, a nice contrast to then-Wadsworth coach Dave Sladky, who was terrifying to a 23-year-old, teeth-cutting sportswriter.

Sladky, who died nine years ago, went on to become one of my favorite local sports personalities. We ran into each other a few times years after his Wadsworth days and never failed to stop and talk.

These days, it’s Sooy and Hassinger whom I bump into now and again. “Hass,” as he shows up in my – and everybody’s – contact list, never fails to be welcoming when I show up to cover an event involving his team, which is not nearly as often as I wish it could be.

Sooy, an assistant coach to Tanner Houska at Highland, is usually somewhere near the gym when I take my son to youth wrestling practice at the school. There is not a single time when Sooy doesn’t stop to say hello.

It wasn’t always that way. Sooy, one of the few people involved in basketball anywhere not as tall as I am, nonetheless cut an imposing figure and could make you tremble a bit, especially in the wake of a loss.

I remember after one game – I have no idea where or against whom – asking Sooy about a Medina player who scored 30-ish points in the defeat.

He looked at me like I was crazy and admonished me for asking about an individual in a team loss. It was a great lesson at the time, and I never forgot it.

As a writer, if a player on a losing team has a great game, ask the winning coach about that player. They’ll say something nice.

As a coach, which I became much later, focusing on team accomplishments always came first, win or lose. Stars were stars, everybody helped make that happen, even kids who didn’t play much, if at all.

Hassinger is a bit the opposite. Whether Medina wins or loses, he’ll treat a reporter like an old friend, whether he knows them or not.

I treat Hass like an old friend because he is one. I now treat all coaches like old friends, whether I know them or not and whether they just won a championship or had their tournament run stopped by a buzzer-beater. Life’s too short for postgame confrontation.

It’s just sports. The games are fun, the wins are great, but I’ve found that the relationships are what I value most from my many years on the edges of the local sports scene.

People like Keith Sooy; Medina girls coach Chris Hassinger; Medina boys (and formerly girls) soccer coach Doug Coreno; Medina girls basketball coach Karen Kase; Highland football coach Mike Gibbons; Cloverleaf girls basketball coach John Carmigiano; former Wadsworth wrestling coach John Gramuglia; Brunswick boys basketball coach Joey Mackey; and others too numerous to mention have made this part of my job a pleasure for decades.

It was dumb luck that landed me in the Medina gym the night Hassinger was honored for breaking Sooy’s record. I was lucky to grab a photo and a few comments.

I was luckier, though, for many other reasons – and have been for many years. I hope all these men and women understand how much I’ve appreciated them.