Boys basketball: New Clearview coach Bobby Gossom sees plenty of potential for success

Bobby Gossom has been a fixture in gymnasiums across North Central Ohio for nearly two decades. Now Gossom is making the move to Lorain County to try to bring Clearview basketball back to its glory days. Gossom was recently approved as the boys basketball coach at Clearview following the resignation of Jason Christensen, who stepped down at the end of the 2024-25 season after leading the Clippers for five years. "I've been coaching for 18 years," Gossom said. "It's something I love doing. I love coaching and I love working with kids and helping them get better not just as basketball players but as people. As a coach, there's a bigger picture than just winning games. It's helping kids develop and become young men." Gossom got his start in coaching at his alma mater, Lucas High School, just outside of Mansfield, and along the way had stops at Marion Harding, Galion, Margaretta, Sandusky St. Mary and Norwalk. He also coached at The Ohio State University at Mansfield. "When I sat down in the interview and talked to the administration at Clearview I felt like we were all on the same page in where we wanted the program to be," Gossom said. "Clearview is in a great conference, they have athletes and there's potential to do some really nice things." Although Gossom's hiring wasn't official until early June, he was able to lead the Clippers into last week's Battle 4 The Bay and they also played a limited schedule in the Cedar Point Summer League. "The kids are great," Gossom said. "Obviously the timing of everything wasn't ideal. We had to be a little creative with what we did this summer but the kids are showing up to stuff and you can tell they want to get better. The kids have bought into everything we've done this summer. They've come in with great attitudes and get after it." Gossom said he's been working with Clearview football coach and athletic director Mike Collier to balance the demands during the summer for the many multisport athletes in the basketball program. "I wanted to work with the other coaches to make sure we're not burning the kids out," Gossom said. "I don't want to overwhelm them. Summer is a time to work on individual skills but I also want to make sure they have time to be kids." For the past three seasons, Gossom has been balancing the roles of coach and dad, leading the Norwalk girls JV team while his son. Riley. played at Heidelberg University. With Riley entering his final year of basketball, Gossom was thinking it might be time to be a head coach again. "I've been looking to get back on the boys side so I'm really excited for this opportunity," Gossom said. "The icing on the cake is I get to come into a program that has had some success and I feel like really the potential to get back to the days of coach (John) Szalay." Although the Clippers haven't had a winning record since Szalay's final season in 2019-20, Gossom thinks they have the talent to become contenders in short order. "I think the LC8 is a really solid conference and there are some really solid basketball programs," Gossom said. "I think there's the potential to come into the conference and hopefully compete for a conference championship in the course of the next couple of years." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.