Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day of Manchester makes his way to the podium before speaking about mental health at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester on Thursday.
Ohio State head football coach Ryan Day of Manchester makes his way to the podium before speaking about mental health at the Boys & Girls Club of Manchester on Thursday.
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State football coach Ryan Day was once a 3-point launching, defensively minded New Hampshire basketball star who led Manchester Central to a state championship.
During a Q&A with OSU basketball coach Chris Holtmann during Thursday night’s Spring Festival held by name, image and likeness collective THE Foundation at Value City Arena, Day went so far as to call basketball “my first love. growing up.” He used to mix it up with Buckeye players — and prospective players — in pickup games earlier in his coaching career.
Those days may be over, though, after an encounter with one of the Buckeyes’ young players on the rise.
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The exact timeline was suspect, but Day said during a summer barbecue for recruiting targets, he challenged Sonny Styles — “I think he was in eighth grade,” Day said — to a game of one-on-one.
“I’m not lying — I went up to guard him, and I was talking a little trash,” Day said. “He crossed me up, I rolled my ankle and he dunked.
“And that’s the last time I touched a basketball. That’s the honest-to-God truth. Swear to God. So there’s no more basketball for me.”
As they have in the past, both Day and Holtmann spoke of their respect for each other. Holtmann said he could take some lessons from “how controlled he is with the officials.” (Perhaps he did not see Day’s eruption against Rutgers last season.)
As the basketball Buckeyes struggled to a losing record and 13th-place finish last season, Holtmann turned to a coach who has lost three regular-season games in four years.
“He’s meant a great deal to me during some of our struggles this year,” Holtmann said. “He was a guy that I leaned on quite a bit.”
