Denen hired as new Zane Trace girls basketball coach

KINNIKINNICK — Josh Jones retired from his girls basketball coaching role earlier this off-season and Zane Trace announced his replacement Monday.

The school board approved the supplemental contract of John Denen, who has a total of 25 years of head coaching experience on the basketball court in five different school districts. Denen retired from Washington Court House High School as a special education and physical education teacher and served as the girls basketball coach from 2009 to 2012.

Before 2009, Denen was the varsity girls basketball coach at Hamilton Local (one year), Manchester (two years), Circleville (seven years) and Washington Court House (eight years), in his first tenure there.

He also coached varsity boys basketball teams at Johnstown-Monroe and Washington Court House.

“I happened to be listening to WKKJ one morning, my wife and I, and it came across that Zane Trace had just lost their girls basketball coach,” Denen said. “My wife looked at me and said, ‘You know, that’s pretty late to be losing their basketball coach. You could help, couldn’t you?’ I was like, ‘So what are you telling me here?’ It’s only a few miles away from where we live so I picked up the phone and inquired about the job. I’m happy to be here.”

In an illustrious career at the high school level, Denen has been named the AP Southeastern District Division II Coach of the Year four times and has won two conference titles, two district titles and five sectional crowns.

Five teams under Denen have been ranked inside the state’s top 10 five times  — 2000-2001, 1999-2000, 1991-1992, 1990-1991 and 1985-1986.

Denen’s newest challenge will be coaching a Zane Trace team that went 5-18 overall in 2014 and just 4-10 in conference play.

“When I met with the kids, we just talked about improving every time we step on the basketball floor,” Denen said. “There were 23 kids in the meeting and we’re going to start off from right there. We’re fortunate that the coach before me got some things set up that, had it not been that way, would’ve made it really difficult for us. So we’ve got some preseason scrimmages set up and things like that. We’re going to go into this situation, evaluate some kids and come in with a blank slate.”

dwebb@chillicothegazette.com

Twitter: @dw1509