Picking a Patriot

The longest-tenured and most successful boys basketball coach in Patriot history was a Bruin.

Now Blackford is turning to a Patriot in hopes of generating similar longevity and success.

Blackford School Board on Tuesday approved the hiring of 2008 Jay County High School graduate Aaron Daniels as the Bruins’ next boys basketball coach.

“This is a lifelong dream of mine,” said Daniels. “This is a dream come true for me to be a high school basketball coach. And to do it at a place like Blackford with rich history, the rivalry with Jay County, it’s just that much sweeter.”

He said he wasn’t looking for a change — “I’ve loved my time at Jay County and I always thought I would be there,” he said — but the circumstances were right for him to reach out to Blackford athletics director Scott Clamme when the job came open.

“Living in Portland … there’s only about four or five high school head coaching jobs that I could take because of that, because I’m not moving,” said Daniels. “I was not looking for a job at all. … It would have had to be the perfect scenario for me to leave Jay. … With an opportunity like that, I just couldn’t pass it up.”

Daniels will take over for Matt Justin, who spent the last three seasons leading the Blackford program.

Justin compiled a 29-42 record with the Bruins, winning eight games in each of his first two seasons before going 13-11 in 2023-24. He was 0-3 in sectional games.

Daniels served as an assistant under former Jay County and current Bluffton coach Craig Teagle, a Blackford graduate, for four seasons. He continued to help Teagle after he moved to Huntington North, returned to Jay County under Chris Krieg and has spent the last four seasons assisting Jerry Bomholt.

That experience stood out.

“He’s worked with coaches who have had such good careers,” said Clamme, who was on staff with Daniels under both Teagle and Bomholt at Jay County. “Working with coach Teagle and coach Bomholt — two Hall of Fame coaches right there — if anything is going to prepare you for being a head coach on your own, it’s having experiences like that where you work with guys with that much experience building programs and creating tradition.”

Daniels said he feels his time with the two Patriot coaches who have combined for 1,048 career wins — Bomholt is 594-386 in 43 seasons while Teagle is 454-279 in 32 seasons — allowed him to see different successful perspectives.

He plans to take some of what he learned from both men and build off of it.

Daniels said he plans to run a defense similar to the switching man-to-man he played as a Patriot — JCHS went 17-5 in his senior season and lost eventual Class 4A state runner-up Marion in the sectional championship game — but with more of an effort to push the tempo.

“We’ll press,” he said, also emphasizing the importance of playing hard and being mentally tough. “We’ll play a lot of jump-and-run defensively so we can stay in our man defense.  But we’ll press and try to get transition buckets, try to get the easy baskets.

“I’ve coached with two of the best, in my opinion, defensive coaches in the state of Indiana. So I have a really great base for defense. But I really just want to give my own flare to it.”

He also said he wants to be a motivator.

“I want them to play out of that love for basketball and love of the sport,” Daniels said.

BHS had a large pool of applicants for the job, Clamme said, some of whom had head coaching experience. Daniels had what the school was looking for.

“He’s a high-energy guy,” said Clamme. “He’s a guy who's really primed and ready to begin his head coaching career … We’re happy that his first head coaching opportunity is going to be at Blackford. And we’re hoping that he’ll be able to stay for a long time and build a quality program.”