Coaches' sons find home with Buckeyes as assistants

Jim Rucki has seen some pretty outstanding players on the hardwood in his over two decades leading the Findlay High boys basketball team. Luke Kraus, Zavier Simpson, Ben Roethlisberger…the list can go on forever Then there's Upper Sandusky's Jake Diebler. "Jake is what we like to call a kid with a high motor, a non-stop motor," the long-time head coach of the Trojans said. "Jake had the most non-stop motor of any kid I ever coached against. He was unbelievable." At the time, Diebler was donning the red and black of Fostoria, playing for his father Keith. "He was an extension of me," Keith Diebler said. Diebler has coached at Lakota, Genoa, Gibsonburg, Bowling Green, Plymouth and now at Lakeside Danbury in addition to Upper Sandusky and Fostoria. "He knew what we needed to do with every game plan, and along with the other guys that he was fortunate enough to play with at Upper, everything worked out really well," Keith said. Eventually, Jake went on to play at Valparaiso. Little did both families know that almost 15 years after facing one another, Jake Diebler and Jim Rucki's son, Robbie, would join forces at Ohio State to help lead the program, as it was announced last month that Jake was named the Associate Head Coach of the Buckeyes, while Robbie was named video coordinator. "It's really exciting," Robbie said. "To finally be a part of the full-time staff, I'm really proud of all the work I've put in for ten years. "I feel like it's finally paying off and I'm just excited to continue to work hard. We've got a lot of exciting things coming up in our program, so I'm excited to continue to be a part of it." Jake, who was the video coordinator for OSU for the 2013-16 seasons, had been an assistant coach for Chris Holtmann for the last three seasons before picking up his promotion. "It's really a blessing for me and my family to be in this position," Jake said. "For three years, I've had a chance to really learn and grow from coach Holtmann and the other guys who've been on my path. Growing up in Ohio, brother (Jon) plays at Ohio State, this is special." A lifelong love affair Like riding a bike, the game of basketball is second nature for both families. Jim Rucki has won more than 500 games over his career at Rocky River and Findlay, and Keith Diebler's won over 300. Both have coached in a lot of games with a lot of different players. Change is a constant thing, not just in the game of basketball, but in the game of life One thing that never changed was their love for basketball. Even before playing high school ball for his father, Jake found his way in the gym. "He was in diapers and was crawling around and was trying to do drills before he could dribble or walk," Keith said. "He was always in the gym, always studying the game. Jake was a workaholic, even as a basketball player in high school. That's really carried over to him as a coach and what's he done." "One thing I've tried to take from my dad. no matter where I'm at that day, is relationships," Jake said. "The thing I think my dad did an unbelievable job at is that he poured everything into his teams. I saw it when I was a kid when I hung out as an elementary manager, and I lived it when I played for him. "He gave everything he had into that team that season, and that taught me a lot. The most influential people in my life have always been coaches, and he's included in that." The same can be said for Robbie. "Growing up with my dad, I've watched film of basketball for my entire life," Robbie said. "I feel like I'm used to breaking down film. I'm used to spending hours and hours re-watching games and doing all that. It kinda feels second-nature to me." "He just had a knack that you could see from a young age," Jim said. "When I'd go scouting, I'd give him something to do while were scouting. I'd be watching how their run their offensive or defensive schemes, and I would just tell him to keep a shot chart of the opponents. "Midway through the third quarter — and he's six or seven years old at the time — he might say something like 'This guy's shot these shots and he's dribbled left every time before he put them up.' He watched all my films with me to help take stats and he's just really kinda had some kind of an ability to really recognize things on films." And for Robbie, it clearly paid off. Great expectations We can all agree that if there's one thing we don't want to do—disappoint our parents. Especially when you're the coach's son on an Upper Sandusky team that had state title aspirations. "I think there were expectations that he had set for us and we wanted to strive to achieve," Jake said. "At first, I felt like I had to prove myself more because I was a coach's son. That was probably the biggest thing. When you're a freshman at Fostoria, I felt like I had to prove myself above-and-beyond because I was the coach's son." Even more so when you're younger brother, Jon, is on the team, too. "He was done no favors because I was pretty hard on him and Jon — and Jeremiah, for a matter of fact," Keith said. But Jake was never one to shy away from a challenge. "He knew what it took to be a winner," Keith continued. "From film study, to keeping people involved and defensively, understanding what other teams are trying to do from the schemes we had. He was pretty, what I would call, ahead of the game in high. He knew what was happening and made my job so much easier." Jake finished his prep career being named the district player of the year three years in a row (2003-05) as well as the D-II co-player of the year in Ohio in 2005. It was a little bit different for Robbie in high school, though. His father wasn't his head coach. Hall of fame coach and Liberty-Benton legend Steve Williman was. "I talked with Steve maybe one time during his four years, and that was his freshman year," Jim said "I told him that playing time and what kind of player he becomes is really irrelevant to me because I wanted him to be coached. I wanted him to learn to work hard, maybe get coached hard — have to take it, maybe grow up a little and toughen up, maybe get yelled at every once in a while — and I think Steve probably did that. "Robbie understands that you have to do things a certain way. I think he learned that playing around us and playing for Steve was that there's certain expectations that you have to do it, or somebody else is gonna take that spot." An old dog can learn new tricks Jim Rucki's coached for over half his life and has sustained success. But that doesn't mean he won't ask for help from time to time. "I pick Robbie's brain a lot," Jim said. "What they do (at Ohio State), how they do certain things with film, and preparation and scouting reports, just what they look for at certain times. He's taught me a few things for sure. The technological aspect and the different ways that you can use to gain a little bit on an advantage." If Robbie could teach him anything, it's that the way teams study film is vastly different — even in the last few years -- than it was when Robbie started at Ohio State. "When I first got here, we started getting into finally being able to download games off the internet and it's all digital," Robbie said. "Just in the last couple of years with COVID, it's been a complete change. Now recruiting-wise, coaches used to go out and watch kids, and that was the only way you could watch recruits. "Then when COVID happened and coaches couldn't watch them, those events started filming their stuff and they put it on the internet. It changed the way people in the video industry had to work." "With the technology available, it's amazing, even what we at Findlay have," Jim said. "I can get ten game films of an opponent — and I may not watch all ten games — but I can, with a click of a button, watch maybe one of their players and every single shot they've taken in those ten games. I can watch the ten games of the player in maybe five minutes, and you might pick up something." 'One of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had' A coach's son, an extension of him on the court and a solid college career typically leads to a solid coaching career down the line, right? Well, not exactly. At least that's what Jake Diebler thought. "I had no desire to get into coaching until it was about my junior of college," Jake said. "I had these grand aspirations of owning my own business, or managing a Fortune 500 company or whatever else like that." While Diebler might not be the CEO of Marathon or Exxon, he's helped run programs like one. After graduation, he stuck around Valparaiso and was an assistant to his college coach, Homer Drew, during the 2009-10 season. Quickly, he was promoted to director of basketball operations a year later. Once Drew retired, his son, Bryce Drew, took over as head coach and named Jake an assistant coach. In the 2011-2012 season, Valparaiso went 26-8, won the Horizon League and made the NCAA Tournament. After his three seasons as video coordinator for the Buckeyes, Jake teamed up with Bryce Drew, yet again, this time at Vanderbilt. Jake spent three seasons with the Commodores (2016-19) and most notably was the primary recruiter for the now-All-Star point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Darius Garland. Now he's back in his home state. "I don't think I'm able to be where I'm at today without great people," Jake said. "You can even go back further to when I watched my dad coach and run programs for years. Then working for a hall-of-fame coach in Homer Drew and future hall-of-famer in Thad Matta, and then Bryce Drew — who had NBA and college experience — and now working for coach Holtmann, who I think is one of the best minds in basketball." "He's had the privilege working alongside some great coaches—and he soaks it all in and really takes it all in—every aspect of basketball," Keith said. "The study of the game—everything—from game operations, to strategy—what you're running—he's done that since he was in high school." All the work Jake's put in came to a head this past January. With Holtmann and assistant Ryan Pedon out with COVID-19 health and safety protocols, Diebler was acting head coach for the Buckeyes during the 95-87 win over Northwestern on January 9. It was halfway through high school basketball — and perhaps more importantly for him, the last day of deer season –- for Keith, but luckily for him, he was able to watch his son pick up his first win as a head coach. "It's indescribable," Keith said. "The game was won, but he'll be the first to tell you that the coaches there had things well-prepared, and he was just an extension of them. The players—you win with players and how hard they play. "For me, sitting there, it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've ever had as a father." Something in the water And all of the successes that both families have found over the years can be attributed to the place where they started — northwest Ohio. "I think there's great basketball in that region of the state," Jake said. "There's a great connection from that area of the state to Ohio State. There's great basketball across the state of Ohio, but I really feel there's great basketball from that region. There's great coaches there, too." And maybe, it just matters a little bit more, too. "It's important here," Jim said. "I coached in eastern Ohio for ten years, fifteen years actually at Rocky River and we had some good teams. But it really isn't quite as important to the community as it is out here. "You've got those Putnam County schools, where the whole town turns out for the game and I think it's important. Kids grow up wanting to be good. Robbie grew up around the game, obviously that helped. Jake grew up around the game, wanted to be a good player and worked hard." "I look back at my time at Fostoria and my time at Upper Sandusky—and even further back at Gibsonburg—we were so fortunate," Jake said. "I had awesome teammates at Fostoria and Upper Sandusky and I got to watch great guys that I still talk to, to this day, while my dad was at Gibsonburg. "People ask me all the time, 'Where are you from?' I'll always tell them Northwest Ohio because part of me is from Gibsonburg, part of me is from Fostoria and part of me is from Upper. We take a lot of pride being from Northwest Ohio and being from the 419."