Kershner, state’s winningest coach, dies on 81st birthday
Ed Kershner, the winningest coach in Florida high school boys basketball history, died at his Oviedo home Wednesday afternoon after a long bout with kidney failure and other health issues.
The former Oviedo and Kissimmee Osceola coach died on his 81st birthday. The family messaged the Sentinel, among others, to say he shared his final hours at home with his wife, Joyce, and family members: “Dad is sharing his final hours with us. With the help of Hospice, he is comfortable, at peace and soundly resting.”
Kershner was diagnosed with renal failure several years before he retired from Oviedo High School in 2017 following his 45th and final season of coaching. He recorded his 900th career victory at age 76 that year and finished with a 901-377 record.
That included a 37-0 state championship season of 1982-83 for Kissimmee Osceola, which was Kershner’s first Florida coaching stop, and a second FHSAA state title in 2014 for Oviedo High School.
Oviedo athletic director Jen Darty remembers the kind words Kershner offered on a daily basis when she was an athlete at the school.
“I’d stop by his classroom all the time and he always had something positive to say to carry you through the day,” Darty said Wednesday. “He was an incredibly special guy.”
When she returned to Oviedo as a teacher the mentorship continued.
“From a coaching perspective, from a personal perspective, he was really a very important person in my life. I’m sure others can say the same thing. It’s a very sad loss for the Oviedo High School community and the basketball and the athletic community as a whole,” Darty said.
Kershner, an Indiana high school star who played college basketball at Florida Southern College, began his coaching career in his home state but returned to Central Florida in 1980 to become Kissimmee Osceola’s head coach. That move tipped off a legendary run that saw Kershner pile up victories and earn recognition as one of the state’s leading ambassadors for the sport he adored.
“I did the best I could to honor the game of basketball,” Kershner said in a conversation with the Sentinel earlier this year. “I still want to contribute in any way I can. I’m fighting the good fight. I’m not giving up. Going day by day and trying to enjoy them all.”
Kershner served on state and national coaching committees and was a primary founder of the Florida Association of Basketball Coaches, a group he continued to represent long after he retired and was battling illness.
“Ed is really going to be missed,” said Gainesville Buchholz coach Bob Horodyski, who worked with Kershner on FABC endeavors. “He’s one of a kind. His dedication to our sport was really above and beyond.”
Kershner was head coach for the victorious East team in the first nationally televised McDonald’s All-American Game in 1985. He went on to be inducted into multiple coach and basketball hall of fame lists, including the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame and the Florida High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
Perhaps the biggest honor came in 2020, when he became the first Florida coach to be selected for the National High School Basketball Coaches Association’s Court of Honor.