Rimko hopeful Demons will stay in the hunt

Taking over for a legendary coach is never easy.

But that’s the position Dane Rimko is in at Westlake. Rimko takes over this season as head coach for Scott Jones, who had the Demons in contention for a Southwestern Conference and district title throughout his 16-year tenure.

“I volunteered at Westlake for three years and I’ve been around Coach Jones and his program,” Rimko said. “I definitely want to keep the tradition going, if not push it Westlake first-year coach Dane Rimko is hopeful about keeping the Demons in contention.

farther if we can. Westlake has always been a top school since I was in school.”

Jones and his teams have been the SWC champions seven times, and have finished second seven times. His teams have also played in the district championship game in 14 of 16 seasons. Jones produced 14 All-Ohio athletes, went 197-72-33, was named SWC Coach of the Year seven times, and was named as the Greater Cleveland Soccer Coaches Association Coach of the Year three times.

“I’m definitely close with Coach Rimko,” said senior captain Jolie Bogart, who scored two goals in a 3-1 win over Fairview on Aug. 18. “I can talk to him about anything on the field or off the field. So it’s a pretty good relationship with him.”

Rimko’s sister, Peyton, was on the team when he volunteered and graduated last year as a first-team All-Ohio defender. The Demons lost her along with Alise Emser and Meredith Hansen.

That means more responsibility for Bogart as she steps in as a senior defender.

“I’m always the one leading the warm-up or the cool down,” she added. “So my role has definitely changed. We lost a lot of seniors, but we’re looking pretty good so far, and hopefully we can go as far as we did last year.”

So far, so good for the Demons, who started 2-0 with wins over Mayfield and Fairview in a rare back-to-back. The Demons hope to get their outside backs and midfielders up, and play high most of the time.

“We’re not the biggest team, so we like to keep the ball on the ground as much as possible and play to the wings as much as we can,” Rimko said. “It’s always tough to play back-to-back, and I think our depth is pretty good, so we got to get a lot of people in. We’ve executed our gameplan. Jolie is our workhorse back there and (I) don’t plan to take her out much. She’s our captain senior and leads this team. We expect a lot from her.”

Westlake made it to the district finals last year before losing a 1-0 heartbreaker to Avon in overtime. Despite Jones’ departure, the standard has already been set.

And Rimko wants to live up to expectations.

“We always want to strive for conference championships and district finals appearances,” he added. “Hopefully we can get there and see what happens in the tournament. The tournament is always crazy, and once we get down there, hopefully it works in our favor.”

WESTLAKE ATHLETICS