After winning a national collegiate title at Miami, Hamilton, Mike Piatt chose to come back to small towns and Friday night cultures of winning basketball in the Western Ohio League. (Press Pros Feature Photos)
After six years at Miami, Hamilton, a national title in NCAA satellite campus basketball, a runners-up, and four Final Fours, Mike Piatt returns to his roots, Friday nights rivals, and that trusted culture of basketball.
Celina, OH – If you’ve known Mike Piatt as long as I have there was little question that eventually he would land one more high school coaching position. In this case, the boys job at Celina High School, as was announced this week.
To do it, he left six years as the head coach at Miami University, Hamilton campus, a member of the United State Collegiate Athletic Association, an association of smaller, satellite campuses across the country, and in this case, not related in a basketball sense to the Miami University, Oxford campus. Grades and credits transfer without a problem, players do not.
Lefeld Welding Supplies proudly sponsors high school sports and the Ohio State Buckeyes on Press Pros Magazine.com.
And for the last six years Piatt routinely won with players too small for NCAA Division I basketball, not gifted enough, an overlooked at Division II and Division III NCAA basketball for lack of one article of basketball pedigree, or another.
Publisher Sonny Fulks writes OHSAA and Ohio State sports for Press Pros Magazine.com.
In a manner of speaking, Piatt and Miami, Hamilton were made for each other as both players and coach had something to prove. One can make the case for Piatt being overlooked and under-appreciated during the course of his coaching career – at Sidney Lehman, at Miami Valley, at Tippecanoe where he served as the assistant head coach during Jim Staley’s brief stay, at West Milton, and New Knoxville for a couple years…but long after the gettin’ was good at NK in 2008 with the state title team coached by Dan Hegemier.
For instance, Piatt led Lehman Catholic to an 18-5 record and the district finals in 2007 where they lost to Cincinnati Lockland in the final minute. It was Lehman’s best year and best team in memory, and Piatt was named Southwest District Coach of The Year. But he was fired after the season for differences with school administration – he stressed winning and made no excuses when he lost.
Subsequently he went into private business while toiling with hopeless coaching situations like Miami Valley School, where without the efforts of Piatt’s son Austin, a gifted shooting guard, it’s doubtful Miami Valley would have won a game in his two years as coach. The cupboard was otherwise bare.
His time at Tippecanoe was temporary as he was named interim coach when Jim Staley abruptly left the head coaching position midway through the season.
“I wasn’t looking to leave Hamilton to coach high school. But when the Celina job came open it was the one high school position that I was willing to apply for.”
When he took the job at Miami, Hamilton in 2020 it brought a degree of stability and coaching fulfillment, and Piatt immediately proved that his basketball and coaching instincts were adaptable to any level of competition. But the college game at that level is a grind, and not surprising…unnoticed and obscure. In six years there were no calls from Oxford, and barely acknowledgment.
The daily drive from his residence in Vandalia was another hurdle – Dayton traffic – and the regular guessing game of where traffic was backed up between Dayton and Hamilton, and for how long.
And the road trips. USCAA schools do not fly or charter buses for road trips, but rather ride in two school-owned conversion vans driven by, you guessed it, Piatt and his assistants.
“You drive six hours to someplace in New York State, play the game, get right back in the van, and drive all night to get home in time for school the next day,” says Piatt. “You get tired of it.”
And he didn’t get rich, either. The stipend for coaching at Miami, Hamilton is less than what he’ll make as the first-year coach of the Celina Bulldogs, a district that historically takes care of its athletes and coaches.
“I wasn’t looking to leave Hamilton to coach high school,” Piatt said this week. “But when the Celina job came open it was the one high school position that I was willing to apply for. The district has a history of winning basketball, though not lately. But Celina has won the second most WBL titles in the history of the league (17), second only to Ottawa-Glandorf (21).”
Athletes In Action is proud to be a presenting sponsor of area basketball on Press Pros Magazine.com. Call now for camp opportunities for your team in summer, 2026.
But what really appealed to Piatt was the opportunity to teach…develop…and groom adolescent kids for the next steps in basketball, and life – to imbue kids with his own brand and experience. He grew up in Cambridge, Ohio, where played for hall of famer Gene Ford. So, it’s natural that he trusts the small community culture of Friday nights with a packed gym at the Field House in Celina…that will be replaced after next year with a sparkling new school and basketball facility that seats twice the number of the current historic relic.
“The administration, the parents, the community…they’re enthusiastic, and they want to win,” says Piatt. “And this position doesn’t come with some of the past obstacles.
Huffer Chiropractic can help your athlete perform at their best – with offices in Osgood, Jackson Center, Marysville, and Dublin, Ohio.
“The trip from my house to Celina is just about equal to my house to Hamilton, but I don’t have Dayton traffic. I love the Western Buckeye League because of small towns with one school – Celina, Wapakoneta, Definance, Van Wert, St. Marys – 10 to 15,000 people, good towns and good communities. They love their sports and they love to win. And then on Saturday night you can throw in some con-conference games with Marion Local, Coldwater and St. Henry. Those are great towns with great coaches that we want to compete against.”
What he hasn’t said – and what he won’t say – is about the opportunity to prove that 18-5 at Lehman was no fluke; and that four Final Fours, a National Runner-up and a National Title at Miami, Hamilton didn’t come by accident.
Piatt has always owned the reputation for having good basketball accumen, as well as the ability to watch an opposing team for twenty minutes and understand how they play, and what it takes to beat them.
“There’s really nothing original about basketball,” he’s told me, previously. “You borrow from just about everybody.”
His matchup zone has worked wherever he had the talent to play it, and he’s always had a shooter, or two.
“We’ll return a couple of kids next year who can play, including one who averaged 18 points and scored 30, twice.”
Mostly, he respects the coaching culture of western Ohio basketball and looks forward to the competition.
“I don’t know if I can get to 800 wins like Coach Kortokrax did at Kalida,” Piatt smiles. “I’m already 60. But it’s just neat to see someone like him stay at one place for 43 years and have that kind of success.”
All you need is some trust, and a will to win.
Thus, Mike Piatt has left his greatest success in coaching to come back to that which feels natural.
In Celina!
The Orthopedic Associates of Southwest Ohio proudly sponsor high school sports on Press Pros Magazine.com.