A fixture of Owensboro boys’ basketball, Head Coach Rod Drake has announced his retirement after 25 years with the program.
“Owensboro is my home. I went to school there, my daughters graduated from there, my entire family is there, and my mother worked in the OPS school system,” Drake said. “It is kind of bittersweet, but you need to know when it’s time.”
Drake joined the Red Devils’ coaching staff as an assistant for the 2001-02 season and was named the head coach at the start of the 2008-09 season. During his tenure, he led OHS to four 3rd Region titles and a state championship in 2015. Having won a state championship with Owensboro as a player in 1980, he is the only person in KHSAA history to win a state title as both a coach and player at the same school.
“On behalf of our entire athletic department, we thank Coach Drake for his leadership, dedication, and commitment to our student-athletes,” OHS Athletic Director Todd Harper said in a press release. “He has made a lasting impact on our basketball program and school community. When people think of Red Devil basketball, they think of Rod Drake”.
Drake found a desire to enter the coaching ranks in 2001 when he spent a year as a volunteer assistant coach at Kentucky Wesleyan University under Roy Harper.
“I kind of got the coaching bug then, being around it in that capacity,” Drake said. “Before that, I had always been a player and never thought about coaching. It brought you back into the game, the Xs and Os, and getting prepared just like you were playing the game.”
After taking some time away, Drake said he has eyes set on entering the coaching ranks at the next level. He also plans to continue teaching, calling the classroom his growth room.
“I tell our kids that they need to have goals,” Drake said. “When you stop having goals is when you stop living. I tell every team I have had that my goal is to be on TV calling timeouts in the last night with Dickie V going crazy.”
