Dustin Ford had some big shoes to fill when he began the 1997-98 season as a redshirt freshman.
His brother, guard Geno Ford, had just finished a career during which he became Ohio's fifth all-time leading scorer.
The mystique of Geno was hard to live up to
Dustin said. But we're two different players. He was more of a scorer. I was more of a true point guard. While Dustin didn't match his brother's playing career, he still left his mark in the Ohio record books. Ford stands fifth all-time with 166 3-point field goals made in a career and sixth all-time with 310 assists. I played with a lot of good players and was fortunate enough to play under a lot of good coaches which has helped me today Dustin said.
Today, Ford can be found in the hallways of Jackson High School, located 35 miles southwest of Athens. Ford was named boys' head basketball coach at Jackson right out of college, nearly four years ago.
Dustin's path to coaching was not out of the ordinary. His dad, Gene, is a high school coach at Cambridge, and Geno is currently an assistant coach at Kent State.
I think it's just something in the family
Dustin said. I think basketball is what we do as Fords
and I don't know if we coach well
but that's what we try and do. Coaching well is what Dustin has done at Jackson, traditionally a football school that has struggled in basketball. Ford led Jackson to a District runner-up finish in 2003 and set a school record for regular season wins in 2005 with 17. Jackson recently finished the season 18-4, a mark that earned Ford the Associated Press Division II co-Coach of the Year award.
Dustin said he wasn't fazed by Jackson's history of losing in basketball.
At 22
I was blind of a lot of things
he said. A lot of people tell me
'Hey
it's a graveyard of coaches
you'll be lucky to be there two or three years. You can't win there. It's a football school
