DeStazio finds new home at Lake, coaching two teams

By: 
J. Patrick Eaken

Mike DeStazio has realized that he loves coaching high school sports. Every time he considers retirement, the next year he’s right back at it.
DeStazio, who was the Genoa golf coach the past six years, now heads up the Lake boys and girls golf teams.
“It’s a change. I like being challenged as a coach. I don’t know when I’m going to be able to give up this coaching, to be honest,” DeStazio said. “Every time I think I’m done I go back into it again. Maybe that is the way it will always be. Who knows?”
Last year at Genoa, the Comets capped off the program’s best performance ever at the two-day state tournament, placing seventh out of 12 teams in the Division II event at Northstar Golf Club in Sunbury, Ohio. Genoa finished with a team score of 692 on Saturday, while Gahanna Columbus Academy won its third straight D-II state title with a score of 615. The Comets placed 11th at the D-II state tournament in 2009, and they finished 11th in 1998 and 12th in 1992.
“The icing on the cake was going to state last year,” DeStazio said. “I started out with a program that couldn’t break 400 as a team score. By the time we got into our fourth year, we’d won three straight league titles, 15 straight NBC matches, and was district qualifier three years in a row, and state qualifier last year.”
DeStazio said after he left the Genoa program, the itch to coach stayed with him and just like that, a new opportunity at Lake opened up.
“I made a decision to give up the golf after last year’s season,” DeStazio said. “I thought it would be better for family in our Florida home. After I did that, I decided that I still wanted to coach. Genoa, at that point, already decided to move forward. They’ve been good to me at Genoa — the fans, the parents, everybody.”
He hosted a summer practice session on Monday, and 12 boys and five girls showed up, but he says any other Lake golfers who want to participate have until August 1, the date of the first official practice to join the team.
“Right now, it’s an advantage to get out there because when you start picking your varsity team, the kids who put a lot of time in the summer are surely going to have an edge,” DeStazio said.
The Ohio High School Athletic Association has waived some summer restrictions on coaches’ access to athletes because of the coronavirus pandemic. Lake’s home course is Hidden Hills Golf Club, and DeStazio liked what he saw in that first session.
“They worked very hard. I’m super excited about coaching them,” DeStazio said. “The numbers are good. We’re going to take baby steps. We spent a lot of time putting and chipping today. We want to teach the game and then we’re going to start playing some golf before the season starts — try to play two days a week. It’s early to tell where our potential was, but I was excited today because the kids worked hard and that’s all you can ask at this point.
“That’s why we’re excited because I think the kids are hungry to win. When you see that as a coach — that motivates me.”
 
Coaching philosophy
DeStazio, who has coached multiple sports at three Northern Buckeye Conference schools — Woodmore, Genoa and now Lake, is also looking for one more assistant coach. His coaching philosophy has already been proven to be successful.
“What I’m really trying to do is an evaluation on the players. You find out their skill level so you can implement that in practice schedules, so you know the weaknesses. Probably the best way for a kid to practice, in my opinion, is after they’ve played, they know where they struggled, and they should go practice for an hour afterwards,” DeStazio said.
“They might have trouble getting off the tee, they might have trouble putting, they might have trouble chipping — whatever. Then they should go practice that right after they play and that’s what we are trying to instill that you just don’t go play nine holes, and play bad and put your clubs away, and then don’t play again for a couple days. If time permits, practice for an hour afterwards.
“We also coach, or teach, to play the hole backwards. It’s a pretty simple formula—where do you want to be to hit your second shot. You don’t want to hit the ball 300 yards and then you don’t like where you are at. If you want to be 150 out because you like that club, then you hit something off the tee that puts you 150 out.
“That’s the strength of golfers is to play your game, not play somebody else’s game. That’s where kids get caught up because they want to drive the ball 300 yards and then they can’t hit their next shot because they have nothing to hit.
“Course management is a challenge. We teach to stand behind the ball at the tee box and look at the fairway and take this mental picture — where is the safest place for me to aim in that fairway. That’s the kind of things that we are trying to instill. Don’t just go and try to hit the ball. If I hit left to right, then I need to end up aiming a little left. Then that is the kind of things they have to learn.”
DeStazio says he has gotten everything he needs from Lake Schools, even though it’s a different environment.
“Lake is a great school district. Dave Shaffer, the athletic director, he has been super to work with,” DeStazio said. “Dave really cares about the kids in the athletic department at Lake. I have not been turned down for anything. It’s been a rewarding start to my golf season.”
Anyone interested in getting involved with the Lake program, or for any golfers who want to join the team, DeStazio can be reached at 419-250-2323 or mtdestazio@frontier.com.
 
 
 

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