Seasoned Pacsi returns to head role at Mayfield

Bob Pacsi doesn’t like to talk about himself all that much.

For Mayfield athletic director Keith Leffler, there wasn’t much he needed to hear anyway when looking for a new head boys basketball coach. Pasci, who spent the last two years as an assistant to Kevin Niemczura, has coached more than 1,000 games in 40plus years of coaching high school basketball.

Pacsi takes over a Mayfield team which went 2-20 last year, a season he called an “eye-opener” in the sense anything that could’ve gone wrong did. Between injuries and roster attrition during the season, however, it afforded younger players a chance to see the floor.

“There’s some work to be done,” Pacsi said. “But it’s good kids, they work hard and if they do that and blend together, anything can happen. I’ve learned that along the way a lot of seasons that I’ve had.”

Pacsi’s 44 years of coaching experience spans 26 years at Twinsburg, where the Tigers won 526 games, two district titles and Pacsi coached current Cavaliers assistant James Posey. He coached in Pennsylvania, at Marion Harding and Trinity, in the 18 years prior.

Leffler, Pacsi’s son-inlaw, called the Wildcats new head coach one of Ohio’s all-time greats. Leffler says Pacsi’s background as someone who can development high school athletes into good people as well as players makes his addition one from which Mayfield’s young basketball program stands to greatly benefit.

“He understands the multifaceted role that has come to be expected in a head high school coach,” Leffler said. “Coach Pacsi has developed great relationships with players, a number of which have gone on to successful collegiate and professional careers in a variety of sports.”

It wasn’t long ago Pacsi thought he was past the point of being a head coach in basketball.

He stepped down from his post at Twinsburg, where he is still a guidance counselor, in 2015 when his wife, Mary, was diagnosed with leukemia.

She passed away later that year and soon after, weeks before the season began, Niemczura had a vacancy on his bench. Pacsi joined Niemczura’s staff, a job which helped Pacsi more than he assisted Niemczura.

“It was a tough couple weeks,” Pacsi said. “It probably helped me more than I helped them.”

Two years later, Pacsi begins a new, if not unforeseen, portion of his coaching journey. He doesn’t plan to slow down anytime soon, either — Pacsi recently had his counselor’s certification renewed, and plans to continue his work at Twinsburg for those five years.

Pacsi held a meeting with the program’s players and parents May 1, which he said went well. Mayfield’s ninth- and 10thgrade classes should give the Wildcats a solid foundation as they rebuild.