New Triway basketball coach ready to get the ball rolling
Nathon Loney, right, has been hired as the new boys basketball coach at Triway. Loney, 33, was an assistant coach at Mansfield Senior for the last three seasons and prior to that was a head coach at Shelby and Riverdale.
While he was a student-athlete at Danville High School, Nathon Loney remembers being impressed with the Triway boys basketball team at the state tournament in 2006.
“I sat in the stands for the state championship game (73-46 Dayton Dunbar win) and for the Final Four game against (Columbus St. Francis) DeSales (58-56 Triway win),” Loney said.
Loney could have never imagined at the time that he’d one day lead the Triway basketball program.
Triway announced on May 31 that Loney has been hired as its head boys basketball coach, pending board approval.
Loney, 33, was an assistant coach at Mansfield Senior for the last three seasons. Prior to that he had an outstanding two-year run as the Shelby head coach, leading the Whippets to two straight league titles and a regional trip in 2020-21. He also had two successful seasons leading Riverdale.
When the Triway job became available, Loney thought it would be a great opportunity to become a head coach again. He was chosen for the job out of a large pool of applicants including five who were interviewed, said Justin McDowell, Triway athletic director.
“It’s a great opportunity,” Loney said. “I had a player-parent meeting at Triway on Monday night, and it went very well.
“It was the first time that I’ve gotten to be in front of the kids and everybody within the community, and the thing I was most impressed with was the support from within. It was supposed to be kind of a smaller meeting, and there ended up being probably 150 people in the cafeteria. It was pretty awesome.”
Ben Holt had a solid run with a 99-49 record in six seasons as the Titans’ coach but was nonrenewed after the 2023-24 season.
Loney is well aware of Triway’s rich basketball tradition and hopes to lead a successful new chapter as the Titans leave The Pit and move into a state-of-the-art gym in the new high school this coming school year.
“I talked with Justin McDowell about some of the things they want to incorporate into the new gym, and they’ve asked me for my opinions,” Loney said. “It’s gonna be a beautiful facility when it’s done, and I can tell you one thing: There’s gonna be a lot of excitement coming into that gym once we get things rolling.
“We’ve talked about maybe hosting a holiday classic. The gym’s gonna hold 1,950 people, and we’re gonna utilize that new facility to the utmost.”
The Triway search committee liked the combination of past experience, success and passion Loney will bring to the school.
“I went to Willard, and Shelby is actually our archrival, so I know that area well,” McDowell said. “Nathon’s done a good job everywhere he’s been.
“We are pretty similar school districts, and having the success at Shelby is obviously gonna help carry over and hopefully lead us to success and Triway as well. He’s a basketball junkie and has a really great vision for the program from the youth level all the way to high school.”
Loney wants his Triway teams to be known for playing up-tempo basketball and being physical.
“We’re gonna be physical and work hard in the weight room. I hope when teams come to Wooster-Triway, we’re gonna be feared a little bit,” he said. “We’re gonna play fast and play transition basketball. At Shelby my teams averaged over 70 points a game. It’s a lot of fun to watch and a lot of fun for the kids to play.”
Triway’s returnees will be led by Bruin Flinner and Jalen Hackett. There will be opportunities for lots of newcomers to impact the lineup.
Loney runs several businesses and also is a successful race car driver. He’s won 65 career races including the King of the County race last year and in the Late Model and Modified divisions at Wayne County Speedway.
He’s putting his race cars in “park” this month to focus on jump-starting the Triway basketball program.
“I was pretty busy with racing prior to the last couple of weeks, but now that I’ve got this head coaching job, my focus for June is gonna be solely on basketball,” said Loney, who runs an auto detailing business, helps with his dad’s towing business and repairs race cars. “The month of June is crucial for high school basketball. With me getting hired late, there’s a lot of work to put in and get the ball rolling here.”