Mr. Kyle Hammond has been named the head varsity boys basketball coach at St. Mary Central Catholic High School and will lead the Panthers’ program in preparation for the 2023-24 season. Hammond spent the last 10 years as the head boys coach for Edison High School in Milan, Ohio.
“I am very excited about the opportunity to coach at St. Mary. It is a great fit for me and there is a great basketball tradition here and history of athletic success throughout all the programs,” Hammond said. “Each year presents a chance to compete in a tough basketball league [the Sandusky Bay Conference River Division] against great coaches and players that will prepare you well for postseason tournament play.
“Former St. Mary coach Chris Ceccoli has been a big influence on me throughout my coaching career, and he was a major factor in me pursuing this position. I am excited to follow him knowing the work he put into it, and how he and his staffs have continued to build and grow the program.”
Hammond is very familiar with St. Mary Central Catholic, mainly through family. “My family's connection to St. Mary made this feel like a good home for me. My family has strong ties to St. Mary and many have always spoken so highly of their experiences here,” Hammond said. “My uncle Toby [Hammond] is the football coach and I grew up hearing stories of his teams’ successes and their playoff runs here. I am looking forward to working with him and the other coaches within the athletic department.
“I can't wait to meet the players and the families to build those relationships and hit the ground running. We have a good group of returning players and underclassmen that I am excited to work with and help develop on and off the court. As a coaching staff, we want to run a program that consistently competes at the highest level from the top down to the youth level, and that all of our kids want to be a part of. I want to thank the St. Mary administration for their support, and can't wait to get to work!”
Hammond currently serves as an intervention specialist at Edison and plans to remain in that role. As head coach of the Chargers, his 2015-16 team won Sandusky Bay Conference and district championships, finishing with a 23-3 overall record, which set a single-season school record for wins. He followed that campaign with another district title in 2017.
Prior to his first head coaching position at EHS, Hammond was an assistant coach for three years at Huron High School, his alma mater, under head coach Bobby James. Hammond also spent one season as an assistant coach at Margaretta High School with head coach Troy Roth, current superintendent of the Bellevue City School District.
“We are extremely excited and very fortunate to have Coach Hammond take over leadership of our boys basketball program,” SMCC athletic director Steve Ruthsatz said. “He has been a head coach in the SBC for a decade, where he won conference and district championships, and before that worked under some great local coaches in Bobby James and Troy Roth. Although we lost a good coach in Chris Ceccoli, I truly believe that Kyle will be a great fit here and do a fantastic job leading our boys basketball program where Chris left off.”
After earning his bachelor’s degree as an intervention specialist at Bowling Green State University in 2009, Hammond acquired a master’s in athletic administration from Ohio University four years later. He also received his principal licensure through the University of Findlay in 2020.
Hammond and his wife, Morgan (Bleile) Hammond, have two children: Colton (8) and Jack (4). They reside in Huron.