DaVante McKinney
Ravenna graduate DaVante McKinney said he can remember the rich tradition of basketball during his playing days. McKinney will try to bring the Raven girls’ basketball team to its former glory, having been announced as the new head coach on June 20.
“This community has giving me so much just from growing up here,” the first-year coach said. “Friends, family and mentors, teachers, just people that have touched my life in many different avenues. It is an opportunity to give back and restore something that I truly believe in so that is truly an honor. It is truly an honor and something that means a lot to me.”
McKinney takes over for Courtney O’Donnell, who leaves the program after three years. Although it is the first head coaching stint for McKinney, he has remained connected to the Ravens’ basketball program since returning to Ravenna in 2015, serving as a freshman assistant coach and a varsity assistant coach.
According to McKinney, he considered taking a step back from coaching after it was announced that Coach Marlon Jones would not be returning for a seventh season. He added that once Coach Justin Rahim was selected to become the new boys’ basketball coach, he was recruited by Rahim to remain with the varsity boys’ program as a varsity assistant coach.
When the girls’ head coaching job became available, McKinney saw his opportunity. He acknowledged that if things didn’t pan out, he most likely would have remained with the varsity boys’ program but things have worked out in his favor, and he will inherit a girls’ team that has not recorded a winning season since the 2017-18 campaign.
The 2009 Ravenna graduate noted that there is a lot of work to be done to revitalize the girls’ team, but he likes a challenge.
“Restoring a program, especially one that has not had much success over the past years is going to take a lot from myself, a lot from the administration to believe and trust in my philosophies and process that I want to put in place, so it is definitely going to be a strong challenge, but it is something that I am up for,” he added.
Although most of McKinney’s coaching experience has been with boys’ teams, he said that his familiarity with the Ravenna basketball program dating to his high school days can help him push the team forward.
For McKinney, although his coaching career started after he graduated from Kent State University, he always had his eye on becoming a basketball coach even when he was still a varsity player.
Having been the varsity point guard for two-and-a-half season, McKinney noted that he always considered himself a coach’s player.
“I took pride in being the coach on the floor and in that moment of understanding my role to help my team, I understood that it is something that I wanted to do for life and that is where coaching came into play,” he said.
He added that during his varsity career, then-Coach Phil Starks allowed him to sit in on film sessions. He said that his most memorable seasons were during his junior and senior years, especially his senior season when the Ravens came up just shy of capturing a share of the Portage Trail Conference banner.
He said that he still feels the sting of the team falling short of the conference title, which was another motivator for him to return to his alma matter as a basketball coach.
McKinney’s return to the boys’ team came when Jones, who had served as his freshmen coach, recruited him and his varsity teammate Jordan Jones to join the freshmen coaching staff as assistant coaches.
He quickly became a valued assistant coach for Jones and also earned the trust of then-head Coach Sonny Tilden, who invited him to sit on the varsity bench as well.
Once Jones was promoted to the head coach of the varsity team in 2019, McKinney and Jordan Jones joined the varsity staff as full-time assistant coaches. McKinney’s dream of helping the Ravens earn a conference banner was realized in the 2022-23 season when the team captured the Metro Athletic Conference title.
McKinney is now taking on a new role in his coaching career and plans to set the team’s expectations high from day one.
“Regardless of talent I am here to compete and ensure winning is the priority,” he said. “I understand what it takes to win and what it takes to develop the process of it but winning is definitely the goal.”
Daniel Sherriff