The Ohio High School Basketball Coaches Association is proud to announce that Dan Liedtke of Fort Frye High School is the recipient of the 2021 Paul Walker Award. The Paul Walker Award is presented annually by the OHSBCA to an active coaching member of the association who has made significant contributions to high school basketball. The award is named in honor of the late Paul Walker, the longtime coach of Middletown High School. At the time of his retirement, he had the most wins as a boys’ basketball coach in Ohio High School Basketball History.

Dan is a 1978 graduate from New Philadelphia High School where he lettered in basketball and track and field, and became a member of the New Philadelphia High School Hall of Fame in 2017. After high school, he went to Kent State Tuscarawas campus for two years and then was recruited on a scholarship to play basketball at Rio Grande University. He obtained his teaching degree and graduated in 1983.

Dan then began teaching and coaching at Fort Frye High School where he taught health and physical education. He is currently in his 37th year of teaching and 35th year of coaching varsity basketball at Fort Frye. During his coaching career, he has accumulated an overall record of 657 wins to 231 losses, averaging 18.8 varsity wins per year.

His boys overall varsity record of 27 years was 433-172 with two undefeated regular seasons and only 3 losing seasons. As the boys varsity coach, he coached his teams to 6 OVAC league championships, 17 PVC league championships, 12 sectional championships, 3 district championships, 1 regional championship, and made 1 state final four appearance in 1999.

As the boys varsity coach, he was selected as Division 3 coach for the North-South All-Star Game in 2007, received the Bob Arnzen award in 2005, was OHSBCA Coach of the Year in 2003, AP Division 3 State Coach of the Year in 1999, UPI Division 3 State Coach of the Year in 1988, District 12 Coach of the Year 5 times, East District Coach of the Year 6 times, PVC league Coach of the Year 8 times, Marietta Times Coach of the Year 3 times, District 12 All-star Game coach 2 times, BACF all-star game coach 2 times, OVAC all-star game coach in 1999, OVAC Bill Vanhorn coach of the year nominee 2 years for boys and 2 years for girls.

He then coached both boys and girls varsity basketball teams for 3 years from 2009-2011. Since then, he has been coaching girls varsity basketball only. His current record is 224 wins to 59 losses for an average of 20.4 wins per year. He has coached his girls teams to 10 PVC championships, 6 OVAC championships, 11 sectional championships, 4 district championships, 2 regional championships, and 2 final four state appearances. He received the East District Coach of the Year in 2012 and 2020, AP Division 3 State Coach of the Year in 2012, District 12 Coach of the Year 3 times, PVC league Coach of the Year 4 times, and BACF all-star game assistant coach in 2013. In the 2020 season, the team’s 26-2 record marked the most wins in the history of Fort Frye basketball. This past 2020 season state final four tournament appearance was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dan has been married for 31 years to his wife, Loretta. He has 3 daughters who all played basketball at the collegiate level. The Liedtke family also conducts fundamental summer camps at their own pavilion court at their home near Beverly, Ohio during the summer months.