Canton South High School picks assistant Walt Cerrato as next girls basketball head coach

A successful girls basketball season had just ended at Canton South High School. The Wildcats finished 15-10 and won a sectional championship. Assistant coach Walt Cerrato was happy to be part of the progress Canton South had made but was considering taking some time off.

Those inside the program had other ideas.

"My wife and I are expecting our first child so I was actually considering a year off," Cerrato said. "When I called to tell head coach Adam Hall he immediately asked me to reconsider. When I asked him why, he said he was going to be stepping down and it was going to be his recommendation that I take over as head coach. From that point, players start reaching out to encourage me to consider it. It was definitely a curveball but the support meant a lot and everything kind of fell into place."

The process ended with Cerrato being officially hired by the Canton Local Board of Education on Monday. He has served as an assistant coach with the Wildcats the past two seasons.

"It helps tremendously to have those past relationships," Cerrato said. "It's going to allow us to hit the ground running. You can't really put a value on knowing the background of everyone coming into a situation. It allows you to break things down a bit more and focus on the nuts and bolts of the program and will allow us to focus on finding a way to take that next step."

This will be the second head coaching opportunity for Cerrato. He was a head coach for two years at Newcomerstown, and also spent time as an assistant coach at Strasburg, Hathaway Brown, Perry and Tuslaw.

"I've been really fortunate to have a lot of different experiences," Cerrato said. "I've been to big schools and I've been to small schools. I've been to public schools and I've been at private schools. ... In my first head coaching job I was young and eager and I was taking over a program that needed a lot of love and rebuilding. I thought I was going to be the guy to turn it around at the time. We ended up winning two games in two years. We didn't make the strides I was hoping to make and I realized I was not the best fit for that situation. I thought it was going to be best to go back to being an assistant and get back to learning and work my way back to a head coaching opportunity."

That opportunity has arrived at Canton South. He inherits a Wildcat roster that will lose just two players to graduation heading into next season.

"It was just the ultimate honor to have so many people involved in the program reach out to me during this process," Cerrato said. "Whenever somebody takes time to reach out to you, it's flattering. I'm just hoping to continue building on what we've already started."

Reach Cliff at cliff.hickman@cantonrep.com

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