Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Toledo’s East Side and Cardinal Stritch High School had quite a profound impact on Dave Boyce.
Those influences helped the coach go on to greatness as he became one of Ohio's few coaches to win at least 600 games in a career.
Now, after 42 years of coaching, including the last 25 at Perrysburg High School, Boyce has chosen to retire as the Yellow Jackets' boys basketball coach.
"This decision comes after significant personal reflection," Boyce said. "I'll be focusing on personal health and family matters in the coming months. I've got a good feeling that I'm leaving the program in great shape, but it's time for me to pay attention to some other things. I'm 65, I feel good about it, and I'm ready to move on."
Boyce, who had a 410-162 (.717) record in his 25 seasons at Perrysburg, started his coaching career at the age of 22 at Northwood High School, where he went 23-40 over three seasons beginning in 1982. He then took a job at Galloway Westland, which is located 13 miles southwest of Columbus, and stayed with the Cougars for 14 seasons – compiling a 185-125 record.
Overall, Boyce retired having won nearly two-thirds of his games with a 618-327 (.654) record.
Perrysburg has won 12 conference titles in Boyce's tenure, and he is the all-time winningest coach with the Jackets, as well as the winningest coach in Northern Lakes League history.
"It's been a great run at Perrysburg," Boyce said. "We've had consistent success with a string of outstanding players, great kids and leaders. We've had big wins every year."
In 2024, Boyce became just the 19th boys coach in Ohio High School Athletic Association history to reach 600 wins.
Getting started at Northwood
Coaching the Rangers, which came right after Boyce graduated from BGSU, had its challenges as he concurrently served as a budget analyst.
“I was taking all my vacation time to go to early practices and things, and in the two-year review, my boss said, 'You have ability to do this job, but I think your heart is somewhere else.'
“I quit that day to get my teaching degree at UT.”
Boyce said he learned to be a better coach at Northwood.
"I survived at Northwood, and I learned a lot,” he said. “I met some great people there. I wasn't the coach that I ended up being."
East Side pride
Boyce said there was a lot of pride in growing up on the East Side in the 60s and 70s, pointing out that several coaches came out of the area such as Joe Guerrero and Ed Heintschel.
"It was an 'us-against-the-world' mentality,” he said. “East Side people stick together. I grew up playing basketball under the High Level Bridge. There were great games for 20 years, a couple of courts, and the best players in Toledo came there on the weekends."
Before getting to Stritch, Boyce attended Good Shepherd, a now-defunct parochial school, from grades 1-8.
Boyce, who was a three-sport athlete in basketball, football and baseball, learned from a trio of great coaches during his playing days.
Tom Rettig, who was inducted into the Ohio Basketball Hall of Fame two years ago and started his career as a head coach at Springfield in 1972, served as the head basketball coach.
"Tom had a love for the game that came through and really helped me want to be a coach,” Boyce said.
After four years at Springfield, Rettig took over at Stritch, coaching for three years before moving on to Tipp City Tippecanoe, located 16 miles south of Dayton, where he was an assistant for three years before becoming the head coach for the next 23 years. He then left coaching to be the athletic director at the school for four years before finishing his career as the coach at Greenville, located 33 miles northwest of Dayton.
John Ross, who was an assistant basketball coach at Stritch, played at the University of Toledo from 1971-74. The Rockets went 12-0 in his freshman year, winning the Tangerine Bowl and finishing the season ranked 14th in the AP Poll. He is in the school's Hall of Fame.
“John was not necessarily a basketball guy, but he understood how to get the most out of guys,” Boyce said. “He pushed me in a lot of ways, and he helped motivate me for coaching."
Tom Greer, who is a member of the Cardinal Stritch Hall of Fame, coached the football team. Prior to that, he also coached at Oak Harbor after graduating from Ohio Northern University in '67. He coached the Rockets for four years and led the Cardinals to a 32-27-1 record in six seasons. He was named the Class AA Coach of the Year in '75 after Stritch won the City League’s Blue Division.
“I learned a lot from Tom on how he ran his program and how he coached things,” Boyce said.
Boyce tried to take some things he learned from those legends.
"One of the great things about athletics is the scoreboard,” he said. “The scoreboard says we did or didn't win, (but) winning isn't everything. At Perrysburg, we strived to win every game. There's the production of a game plan, carrying it out, role playing, guys understanding that each of them plays a part in the success, and accepting your role. I think that transfers to life."
