Complete Story
Mike Mohner - 2001
Fairport Harding
Mike Mohner spent twenty seasons as baseball coach at Fairport Harding High, fourteen as the Skippers Head coach. Coach Mohner completed his fourteen year career in 1999 with a 327-89 career record for a .786 winning percentage. His teams won seven league, twelve sectional, seven district, a regional, and six Division IV State Coaches Poll Championships. In 1993, 1995, and 1996, Coach Mohner was named Ohio Division IV Coach of the Year by the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association (OHSBCA). In addition, he has been named league (GRC and ESC) Coach of the Year seven times, News Herald Class A-AA and Division III-IV Coach of the Year five times, Plain Dealer Lake-Geauga County Coach of the Year in 1993, Greater Cleveland Baseball Coaches Association (GCBCA) twice (1993, 1998), and Lake County Baseball Club Coach of the Year in 1995. In 1992, he was chosen to coach in the Mizuno All-Ohio Series. In 1998 he served on the coaching staff of Team Ohio. After four years of the Board of Directors to the OHSBCA, he was elected to the executive board. In 1998, Mohner served as the President to the association. He is presently Secretary-Treasurer Elect to the OHSBCA. He has also served eight years as a member of the National Ranking Committee for the National High School Baseball Coaches Association (BCA) and Baseball America. He is a member of the Executive Board of the BCA representing District 4. As Chairman of the Formulating Committee, he authored the first constitution for the Northeast Ohio Baseball Coaches Association (NEOBCA). He also served as the association's interim Executive Director its first year. He remains as the director of the NEOBCA All-star Series at Jacobs Field. He is a past President of Lake County Baseball Club. In March 1994, he was honored as Easton's featured coach in the inaugural edition of "Extra Innings," the national newspaper of high school baseball. He has also had several articles published in the baseball-coaching manual of the BCA, "From the Dugout." Coach Mohner has spoken at many camps and clinics on the state and national level. In December, 1999, he addressed the national convention of the BCA in Tucson. He is a 1973 graduate of Harvey High School in Painesville. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Journalism from Bowling Green University and his teaching certification from Lake Erie College. He holds a Master's Degree in Administration from John Carroll University. In 2000, he returned to his alma mater as Assistant Principal and Athletic Director. He and wife Barbara (LaPash), former softball coach at Fairport, are the parents of two children, Mickey Mantle (11) and Melissa Marie (9).