by Kee On Sports has named Rocky River Head Coach Jamey Pfahl as our 2025 CWC Co-Coach of the Year along with Brittney Matuschek of Westlake. ( see separate article on coach Britt ) .
Some coaches are good coaches and good men, Rocky River Head Coach Jamey Pfahl is a Great coach and a Great Man! It is hard to find a better human being in the game of High School Girls basketball then coach Pfahl. He goes above and beyond to inspire and motivate his players and he is always quick to give his staff the credit. This is an attribute that I promote at Kee On Sports with our staff as well, there is no boss, there is family and that is how success happens.
A huge staple of the his staff is his defensive coordinator Jeff Hammond’s, another quality human being. They have a system that just works as “Relentless River” is more than just a saying. They are never out of a game and no stranger to a second half comeback. This too has been a staple of Pfahl’s term with the team has in his initial game as a head coach three years ago, he led his team to a massive second half comeback over Hathaway Brown to win.
Coach Pfahl has this team ready to return to its third straight District Championship game this year with an inside edge to win it. Their roster is loaded, and when 100% healthy, a tough out for anyone. Like the Westlake and Bay Village programs, River must deal with some of the top talent in their city going to private schools such as Magnificat, St. Joes, Hathaway Brown, Laurel and Gilmour just to name a few. But just like Bay and Westlake, they don’t complain about it, they focus on coaching the team that shows up to practice every day and that is why they succeed.
I spoke with River AD Mark Wagner who had this to say about Pfahl, “Jamey is great at creating a positive atmosphere where kids can grow their skills, compete and have fun. His teams play hard for one another and kids have a great experience playing high school basketball. He makes it look easy, but he works incredibly hard year round to make our girls basketball program the best it can be. “
Here is proof in the pudding of how good the River coaching staff is, their only out of conference losses came to Medina, CJHS and Magnificat, those are loaded programs! Their only conference loss was to Westlake early in the season. They won their last 9 straight conference games to finish at 13-1 and capture a share of the CWC Crown.
In closing, Coach Pfahl is someone I’m honored to cover as a reporter and even more honored to call a friend. I can tell you in this industry, just how extremely rare that is. Congrats coach!
