Mark Ehlen resigning from Xavier, stepping away from basketball after 42-year career

Mark Ehlen, a long-time women's basketball coach in the state of Ohio, is stepping away from the game after 42 years.

Ehlen's career included a multitude of high school and college coaching posts, most of which were situated along the Interstate 75 corridor up and down the state.

His most recent stop was at Xavier University where he served the women's program as director of basketball performance.

Ehlen announced Thursday he was resigning from that position.

"I've coached a long time and, you know, I wanted to do something else, for lack of a better choice of words. Thirty-one years at the college level," Ehlen, 63, told The Enquirer. "I'm still young enough that I want to do something, and I just don't know what that is yet."

The announcement brings to an end – at least for now – one of the most decorated women's basketball coaching careers in Ohio history. That career included more than 450 combined wins as a high school and college head coach, consistently strong academic performances from his college players and a coaching tree that spans out across the NCAA ranks.

After assisting the 1985-86 Dayton Flyers women's program, Ehlen got his first break as a collegiate head coach at Xavier.

"I was way too young," Ehlen said of his time at Xavier, "but I was there for nine years."

Ehlen won 122 games from 1986 to 1995 and led the Musketeers to the 1993 NCAA Tournament – their first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history.

Ehlen graduated 100 percent of his four-year players at Xavier. His athletes also maintained a combined GPA above 3.0 during his nearly decade-long stay at Xavier.

Ehlen then moved to Toledo for a 13-year stint from 1995 to 2008.

He conceded the final year at Toledo was turbulent, but he has since been honored for his work at the university where he earned four Mid-American Conference (MAC) Coach of the Year awards and led the Rockets to eight MAC titles.

Ehlen went 240-149 with the Rockets, finished second in MAC history in conference wins, fifth in overall winning percentage and, in February 2016, was inducted into the Toledo Athletics Hall of Fame.

Between Xavier and Toledo, Ehlen, spent 22 years in the head coach's chair at the end of the bench. He finished his career with a 362-279 overall record.

In the intervening years, Ehlen served for two years apiece as an assistant at the University of Cincinnati (2009-11) and Miami University (2011-13).

Then came his now-concluded four-year stretch at Xavier.

His entire post-high school education, like his coaching career, was earned in Ohio.

A Buckeye in every sense of the word, Ehlen graduated from Ohio State University in 1975 with a bachelor's degree in communications education, and then a master's in broadcast communication from Bowling Green in 1979.

"I could have pursued things across the state line, but there's just something about this state," he said.

What comes next is anyone's guess, including Ehlen's. It's not even definite he'll altogether leave women's basketball.

"I've thought of pivoting off my coaching career and starting a shooting school for kids," Ehlen said. "I've also dabbled with a website for coaches... There's another side of me that says maybe there's something else for me outside of basketball, so I'm leaving that open."

Ehlen coached what was then Forest Park High School (now Winton Woods High School) from 1979-1985, compiling a 100-18 record and multiple coach-of-the-year awards at the city (two), county (four) and state (two) levels.

In 1984, Ehlen led Forest Park to the first state basketball championship in Cincinnati-area girl's basketball history. That, Ehlen said, was his greatest on-court accomplishment, adding, "​a lot of great memories and great players on that team. That was something. That's right up there."

As for matters beyond the game, Ehlen said he was probably most proud of the four former assistants now serving as NCAA head coaches.

Tina Langley is leading the Rice University women's program, Stephanie White heads up the Vanderbilt University women and Bernard Scott is head coach at the University of Detroit Mercy.

Perhaps the strongest branch on Ehlen's coaching tree is Robyn Fralick, who this year served as head coach to the 37-0, NCAA Division II national champion Ashland University women's team.

Beyond those four individuals, the social media reaction to Ehlen's Thursday resignation helped him realize some of his other great off-court accomplishments, he said.

"Staying in touch with former players and former assistants. People that are reaching out to me, like on Facebook right now – I'm in a state of euphoria hearing from these people," Ehlen said. "It's been wonderful hearing from these people that are now moms and professionals. I love them all."