BY BOB STASCAK

Ryan Fretz, the head boys basketball coach for the Clyde Fliers, stepped down on March 21 after eight seasons with the program. Fretz said several aspects went into his decision.

“It was time for a change – time for me and time for Clyde as well. It was just time to hang it up,” he said.

Fretz’s overall record is 80-103. The Fliers went 7-17 this season and were 2-8 in the Sandusky Bay Conference-Lake Division.

Fretz’s first season at Clyde was back in 2016-2017, and the Fliers finished the regular season with a record of 6-16. The next year, their record improved to 16-6 as they won the final six games of the regular season. Fretz is a Columbian graduate who started coaching by working with seventh-grade students when he was an 18-year-old college student at Valparaiso University in Indiana. Fretz has coached basketball for 26 years, with 13 years as a head coach. Fretz is the assistant principal at McPherson Middle School in Clyde.