Tragedy rocked Rayshon Dent's family, and he's used past to teach Buchtel boys basketball

Deep-seated pain and anger caused a young Rayshon Dent to throw rocks at a station wagon parked in the driveway of a home in his West Akron neighborhood.

The first and only coach to guide Buchtel to an Ohio High School Athletic Association state championship in basketball lost his mother, Dianne, to gun violence when he was an infant.

A woman who lived two doors down from the Dents on Hardesty Boulevard shot and killed Dianne on June 23, 1969. At the time, Dent was 10 months old.

The explanation Dent received is the tragedy occurred after his then-5-year-old brother, Richard Jr., fought with a neighbor boy who then told his mother that Dianne had hit him while intervening.

Dent's understanding is the neighbor boy's mom summoned Dianne to discuss the incident, and when Dianne arrived at the foot of the neighbor's driveway, the woman opened fire.

According to Dianne's obituary published in the Beacon Journal, she died at the age of 23.

Shirley Lykes was found guilty of second-degree murder after shooting Dianne twice with a .22-caliber revolver, the Beacon Journal reported in May 1970. Police said the fatal shooting took place on the front steps of the Lykes' home, and it “followed a quarrel over the actions of the two women's children,” according to reports from the Beacon Journal's archives.

Although Lykes went to jail, Dent said neither her family nor his moved. Dent remembers learning about his mother's death and lashing out at the Lykes family by hurling rocks at a car he perceived to be theirs when he was 5, 6 or 7 years old.

Years later, Dent tried to find Lykes, to no avail.

“I felt like I hated for so long, I just wanted to just tell the lady, 'Hey, I forgive you,'” Dent, 55, said.

Dent credits his father, Richard Sr., grandparents and aunts and uncles with helping raise him and his brother.

The Dent children needed the support of extended family, Dent said, especially because their father struggled in the aftermath of his wife's death.

In recent years, Buchtel boys basketball players have heard their coach open up about his past.

Dent said he wants them to know, “Whatever you're dealing with, I'm comparable. Whether it's drug abuse, whether it's gun violence, I can relate. … I try to tell my young men don't let that define you because, at the end of the day, you still have to make choices. You've got to be able to overcome.”

Buchtel twice rejected Rayshon Dent as a head coaching candidate before finally hiring him to guide the Griffins

A 1986 Buchtel graduate, Dent cleared many hurdles to lead his alma mater to a Division II state championship in March.

Buchtel is scheduled to open its 2023-24 season Saturday night against Pickerington North during a showcase at the Reynoldsburg High School Summit Campus.

For the first time since Central-Hower won the Class AAA crown in 1986, an Akron City Series team will embark on a state title defense.

Oddly enough, the man who has guided the Griffins into uncharted territory wasn't hired as their head coach until the third time he applied for the job.

“There's so many people out there that don't really understand how you've got to stick with it, and you've got to keep going after jobs,” said Steve Culp, one of Dent's assistant coaches at Buchtel.

“We've all been rejected for jobs or can't even get an interview, but you really only have one choice, and that's keep going or don't. So he kept going and going, and, at the end of the day, it was definitely the right move for him to keep pushing forward.”

Dent first became a Buchtel assistant for the 1999-2000 season, leading the freshman team on a staff headed by former longtime Griffins coach Harvey Sims.

Dent remained with the program after Sims took another job and Buchtel hired Jack Greynolds Jr. in 2001.

The first time Dent threw his hat into the ring for head coach, Stephen White landed the job in 2003 and retained a 35-year-old Dent as an assistant. Last season, White assisted Archbishop Hoban coach T.K. Griffith when the Knights won the Division I state championship in boys basketball. Hoban celebrated the feat with Buchtel during a parade in downtown Akron.

The second time Dent pursued a head coaching vacancy at Buchtel, former Griffins basketball star Matt Futch landed the gig in 2017. Dent said he understood the decision because Futch's resume includes collegiate coaching experience.

Still, Dent explained he felt as if his coaching career had reached a dead end as a Buchtel assistant. He stopped coaching, though he continued to learn and consult. He spent the 2019-20 season sitting behind the bench of Shaker Heights boys hoops coach Danny Young, a 1988 Buchtel graduate who said Dent is like a brother to him. They communicated about strategy before and during games. Dent gained perspective by studying how Young operated his staff and bench.

“I think God blessed him and kind of seasoned him as he was waiting [to become a head coach], and I think that wait put a fire in him, too,” Young said.

After Futch left Buchtel in 2020 to seize the reins at Cuyahoga Valley Christian Academy, Dent finally ascended to the helm of the Griffins. Dent said former Buchtel principal Nicole Hughes made the call to hire him.

“That last time, I was a little apprehensive [about applying],” Dent said. “But at the same time, I'm like, 'If not me, then who?'

“You can't say, 'Well, we would've hired him, but he didn't apply.' I didn't want that to be the reason. I'm glad and truly happy that they gave me a chance.”

Akron Buchtel basketball coach Rayshon Dent says the military gave him the stability he needed and shaped his life after high school missteps

It took Dent three tries to secure the job and then only three seasons piloting the program to make history with Buchtel's first state title. The Griffins went 23-6 last season, and Dent was named the Boys Team Coach of the Year during the 2023 Greater Akron-Canton High School Sports Awards.

“I can admire that because if I wanted a job, I would keep applying,” White said. “You're going to have to keep telling me no.

“And then when you get it, now you're on a mission. Now I've got to show y'all what's happening. And he did. He did it.”

However, Buchtel's title run didn't come to fruition without adversity.

Dent said he believes the Griffins were actually more talented in 2021-22 than they were when they won it all in 2022-23. But the 2021-22 team had its postseason derailed because an on-court fight with East in a district semifinal led to player suspensions and a shorthanded lineup the next round in a loss to Gilmour Academy.

The suspended players were no longer with the Griffins last season, and Dent avoided using the missed opportunity as a rallying cry for the 2022-23 version of Buchtel.

“I didn't want that to be our crutch, so to speak, for the whole season,” he said.

Dent loves the Buchtel community, and delivering the Griffins faithful something they had never experienced proved to be adequate motivation.

Recently, Dent's wife, Novella, viewed photographs from the state championship on her phone and remarked she still couldn't believe Buchtel had triumphed. She asked Dent if he could believe it. His answer was yes because he never doubted what the Griffins were capable of achieving.

In tense moments during the state title game, Dent showed composure on the sideline. The heat of competition can be stressful, relatively speaking, but Dent has been through true chaos. He served in the Army from 1987-91 and is a veteran of the Gulf War.

“I tell my guys when I graduated [from Buchtel], I was 17,” Dent said. “When I was 19, I was married and had a child. By the time I was 20, 21, I was in the middle of a desert in a war not knowing if I'm going to come back home.

“That's how fast life can turn. From 17 and four years, I went from being married, a father, and now I'm in the middle of a war zone. So I try to tell people in high school, life is no joke after you get out of here, so enjoy it while you can, but definitely try to plan for the future.”

Dent said he needed the stability the military provided because he didn't take high school seriously enough. He was academically ineligible at times and even quit basketball after he had made the team as a senior. He was a self-proclaimed “funny guy.” He told his basketball coaches he would rather focus on baseball and enjoy his last year at Buchtel instead of sitting the bench for them.

Now Dent wants his players to learn from his missteps.

“As demanding as he can be, he can also be a great uncle, father figure, whatever it might be that kids might be missing,” said Firestone boys hoops coach Brian Neugebauer, who previously worked with Dent on White's staff.

Dent said over the years he has suspected some students he's encountered of being in gangs. He said his approach is to refrain from judging them without knowing the details of their lives. He explained his policy is to welcome them to play basketball, provided they abandon any gang activity.

Dent said it's important for him to share with players the path he has traveled en route to becoming a husband with three children and three grandchildren and a customer service supervisor for the U.S. Postal Service after 26 years as a mail carrier.

“He's showing them, 'I've been through this, but I'm going to make something out of myself. I'm not going to blame others,'” Culp said.

“We have some kids who've been through some major stuff in their lives, and not everybody can handle it.”

Buchtel Griffins boys basketball coach Rayshon Dent is known for forging bonds with players and assistants

Buchtel senior guard Qi'Marreon Marks said every time he talks to Dent, he senses a special connection. It happened last season when Dent spoke to Marks about his role and encouraged him to play freely instead of worrying about on-court miscues.

“He lets his players just be themselves,” Marks said. “As long as they're not taking advantage or disrespecting him, he's respecting you as well as a player. He's letting you just go out there and show your talents.

“There are times where if you're not working hard, he will get on you. So when he does lose his temper, that just shows, OK, you're actually doing something wrong. But usually he's a chill coach, and, most of the time, he's just very exciting all the time to just be around.”

Dent emphasized allowing his assistant coaches to be themselves is among his top priorities. He said football, because of the way the sport's coaching staffs are often structured, influenced his willingness to delegate.

Not only did Dent coach recreational and AAU basketball for years before he joined Buchtel's staff in 1999, but he also coached youth football.

Dent eventually became a longtime assistant football coach for Buchtel, a tenure highlighted by two seasons as a defensive coordinator and one season as an offensive coordinator under former Griffins coach Ricky Powers. Dent called the offense's plays in 2010 when Buchtel finished as the Division III state runner-up.

As just a kid from Akron, LeBron James played peewee football for Rayshon Dent

Another memorable moment for Dent as a football coach occurred when he turned a 10-year-old tailback named LeBron James into the quarterback of the South Rangers peewee team.

Dent remains in awe of James spontaneously running a two-minute drill late in a game without being taught how.

In 1994, Dent was impressed again when he asked James to name his favorite football player. James singled out Chicago Bears great Walter Payton, who had retired after the 1987 NFL season. James was born in 1984.

“I said, 'What you know about Walter Payton?' He said, 'I watch ESPN, Coach.' When I hear about [James] being a history buff, that's really true,” Dent said.

As a high school phenom, James led the STVM boys basketball team to three state titles, with Culp aboard as an assistant when the Irish claimed the Division III crown in 2001 and its Division II counterpart in 2003.

Culp played a pivotal role in Buchtel capturing a state title because Dent leans on him and Mike Williams as his right-hand men.

Culp handles the vast majority of the X's and O's for the Griffins. He designed an inbounds play in crunch time of the state championship game, leading then-senior Marcel Boyce Jr. to draw a crucial foul. Boyce subsequently made two free throws with 14.5 seconds left, lifting Buchtel to a 51-49 victory over Lutheran West at the University of Dayton Arena.

Afterward, Dent publicly praised Culp for drawing up the vital play.

“He allows the assistant coaches to do whatever they need to do,” Culp said. “He doesn't really care who gets credit for it as long as he can put together a product that wins.”

Granting assistants such a significant degree of independence is rare for a head coach because hubris or insecurity can interfere.

“I know my value as a coach in my own way,” Dent said. “I don't care about what nobody thinks on the outside really or nothing like that. I just feel like our staff is a brotherhood, and it's something that needs to be trusting. We've got to trust each other because when we go into these games, it's us against the fans, the other team, the coaches.

“We have to be on the same page, and egos can't get in the way because egos, that would be the first thing that would tear down everything. So if I want to keep enjoying this, I have to remain myself. And I don't know how to be no other way.”

Buchtel's OHSAA basketball championship: 'I almost came to tears': Griffins greats proud of state title team

Buchtel possesses a talented roster again, and the Griffins might be even more athletic this season than last. Whether they can match the level of basketball IQ the 2022-23 team displayed is a key question, and the coaching staff realizes it must convince the players to buy into defense for another deep OHSAA tournament run to materialize.

Dent, of course, wants to win, yet coaching holds a deeper meaning for him.

“I didn't apply for the job that many times just to see kids play basketball,” he said. “I want to impact them in some kind of way.”

It's why Dent has decided to disclose what he endured as a child and how he's responded as an adult.

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Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Rayshon Dent uses tragedy to shape Buchtel boys basketball