TOM CUPPETT OF CHILLICOTHE
Coach Tom Cuppett's teams won six league, 14 sectional, three regional and one state (Sisterville - 1965) championships. Playerson on Cuppett's teams earned recognition as well: 14 players selected to play in post season All-Star games, three named Players of the Year in the state, including High School All-American Mike Carson, and 19 players received college scholarships.
From 1964 through 1968, his teams won 79 and lost 23 at Sisterville, West Virginia, and he coached the North squad in the West Virginia North-South Cage Classic. In 1965, 1968 and 1970 Cuppett was LKAC Coach of the Year.
In 1973 and 1974, he was named Central Oho Conference Coach of the Year from Chillicothe. At Chillicothe his teams won 188 and lost 69 during his twelve years there. Named Southeastern District Coach of the Year six times in 12 years, he won Coach of the Year in 13 of his 16 years as head coach. He was head coach of the AAA South All-Stars in the 1978-79 Ohio North-South Cage Classic.
He also serve as head football coach for four years, with a record of 25 wins and 13 losses. In a single school year, 1967-68, his football team was 7-3; basketball team 24-2; and golf 20-6, for a total of 51 wins 11 defeats, earning him the Wayne Underwood Coach of the Year.
An outstanding high school and college athlete himself, Tom Cuppett earned recognition in basketball and football. He was selected NAIA Football All-American his senior year at Salem College, and in 1974 was named to the All-Time West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Football Team.
Other honors included Sisterville Jaycee Man of the Year in 1966 and 1968, Tyler County Teacher of the Year in Social Studies in 1968, Friend of Youth Award from the Columbus-Worthington Optimist Club three times, four Chillicothe Mayor's Proclamations, and four Ohio House of Representative Proclamations from District 8.
Married for 30 years, he and Delberta have two sons, Jeffrey and Scott, and daughter, Theresa Speakman, and grandchildren Jonathan and Sara. Cuppett retired January 1, 1993, after serving 14 years as Athletic Director at Chillicothe.