Titan Athletics hires coach and Athletic Director
Terra State Community College has promoted Frank Gioffre to Interim Athletic Director and hired Malcolm Sims as the new Men's Basketball Coach and Associate Women's Basketball Coach.
“We appreciate the leadership that Frank has provided to the department and the College,” said Terra State President Dr. Ron Schumacher. “We look forward to watching our Titan student athletes compete this spring!”
Gioffre served as Terra State’s Men’s and Women’s Head Basketball Coach last year and stepped in to help in December after former Athletic Director Jerry Buccilla resigned. “I’ve got a good sense of where we are athletically and where we want to go through President Schumacher’s vision,” he said. “So, I thought the easiest transition would be for me to officially fill in for the position to oversee everything.”
Director of Human Resources Jeremy McLaney is grateful Gioffre stepped in. “During a difficult time for athletics, Frank Gioffre willingly absorbed the additional responsibilities of the Athletic Director without increased compensation,” he explained. “This level of commitment demonstrates his passion for Terra State and the athletic program. With Coach Gioffre leading the program, we are confident our athletic programs will continue to be a strong recruiting tool for the College and look forward to what the future holds.”
The experience Gioffre possesses in coaching as well as working with youth will be beneficial to his new position. He was the boys jayvee coach at Sandusky High, served as head varsity boys coach at Fremont Ross from 1990-95 and then returned to college as a graduate assistant under Rollie Massimino at Cleveland State University (CSU).
After four seasons at CSU, Gioffre served as head boys coach at Huron High School for three seasons and then worked as an assistant coach at Oberlin College from 2002-17. He also started girls’ golf at Huron in 2005 and coached the team for seven seasons.
Gioffre spent 25 years as a teacher at EHOVE, working on a satellite program which was connected with Huron for 20 years. The last five years of his teaching career were spent at EHOVE exclusively until he retired in May 2019.
In addition, he has run a collection of basketball summer camps and served as a guest speaker at camps around the country.
At Terra State, Gioffre has goals to improve the Titan Athletics program. “I want to continue to build up the athletics program and its facility, hopefully add more sports to the athletics program in the future and expand on club sports and Esports to get students more involved in extracurricular activities,” he said. “We have great coaches already, so we’re in great shape.”
Coach Sims also has plenty of experience on the court. He has over 16 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and high school levels, Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), group and individual training. Most recently, he served two seasons at Saddleback College as the Assistant Men's Basketball Coach, as Milton High School’s Assistant Coach of the Boys Varsity Basketball team and Head Coach of the Girls Varsity and Junior Varsity Basketball teams.
Sims has also played basketball on a professional level for six years and played for Indiana University under Bobby Knight and for Cleveland State University under Rollie Massimino.
He has collected a number of awards throughout his basketball career, including Cleveland Municipal School District Coach of the Year (2002), Nike All-American (1991) and Cleveland Plain Dealer Player of the Year (1992), just to name a few.
All of Sims experience with basketball has made him confident he will lead the Titans to a successful season. “I came into this position with high expectations for my players, coaching staff and myself,” he said. “I expect all my players to challenge themselves both in the classroom and on the basketball court each day. I expect the players in my program to conduct themselves as professionals and play to compete for the National Championship each year.”
“I appreciate Frank Gioffre and President Schumacher for trusting me to lead the Terra State Men’s Basketball program,” said Sims. “I believe the program is in great hands and I am going put the work in each day to make Terra State Community College a household name throughout the state of Ohio.”
Titan volleyball and basketball will resume in the Spring 2021 semester as most National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) fall sports moved due to the COVID-19 outbreak.