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Grimm picked to lead Southern

SALINEVILLE — The Southern Local High School varsity boys basketball team has a new leader on the court as Gerard Grimm joins as head coach.

Grimm was hired this month by the school board and comes to Southern by way of Crestview High School, where he served as a varsity assistant coach for seven years. The Columbiana High School graduate earned a bachelor’s degree from Youngstown State University, where he focused on English and history.

He has served as a long-term substitute teacher in general studies and his sports experience also includes stints as a junior high coach at Columbiana and freshman coach at East Palestine.

“I want to try to build a solid foundation of defense first,” said Grimm, adding that he sees a lot of potential in his players. “We have 18 kids in grades 9-12 and are returning our leading scorer. I know the freshman team had a lot of success last year and there are a lot of skilled players. I’m excited to get the opportunity and to work with kids that want to get better.”

The Indians are losing one player from a Southern Local team that made its first district final appearance since 1990.

Grimm takes over for Aaron Blatch, now the head coach for the Crestview girls.

Grimm has been meeting several times a week with players to work on skill development and prepare them for hardwood matchups in the coming school year.

“We will meet four days a week over the next two weeks for skills development,” said Grimm, who has the Indians playing in the Columbiana Summer League.

Meanwhile, Grimm said he was happy to be part of Southern schools.

“Everybody’s been really friendly and it’s been a family-type community.”

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