The Perry Ogden Junior High Classic basketball tournament is set for Nov. 18 at Western Brown High School, a chance to honor a sports legend of Brown County. Above, Ogden is pictured during the Perry Ogden Court dedication held at Mt. Orab Middle School in 2016. Photo by Wade Linville
Perry Ogden was a sports legend in Brown County, a longtime coach and mentor who made a positive impact on the lives of many.
To honor the late coach, the Western Brown School District will once again play host to its annual Perry Ogden Junior High Classic basketball tournament for middle schoolers. This year’s tournament will take place Nov. 18, a tournament in which about 60 teams take part each year that runs all day in the Western Brown High School.
The tournament has grown so large that it attracts too many teams and spectators for Mt. Orab Middle School where the basketball court is named after local sports legend Perry Ogden. Perry Ogden Court as dedicated on Dec. 10, 2016 at Mt. Orab Middle School with a huge crowd in attendance to show support for the man who is considered one of Western Brown’s greatest coaches of all time.
“This is quite an honor,” Ogden to the crowd during the Dec. 10, 2016 court dedication. “Undoubtedly, it is an honor that I did not expect. Even when (Western Brown) Athletic Director (Tim) Cook called me earlier in the year to tell me about this, my first thought was ‘I don’t deserve this. All I’ve done was what my job was supposed to do.’”
“The best part of this honor for me tonight is not necessarily a name on a wall or anything else. It’s the memories I have of these girls (former players) that are standing behind me,” Ogden said during the 2016 court dedication. “I enjoyed all of my experiences of coaching.”
Perry Ogden passed away on Jan. 25, 2020. He was 76 years old.
Ogden graduated from Hamersville High School in 1961 where he played high school basketball and baseball, earning all-league honors and considered an “ace” on the mound.
After high school graduation, Ogden took his talents to Georgetown College where he was a pitcher and outfielder.
He came back to Hamersville High School to teach and coach in 1966, heading varsity baseball, basketball, and girls volleyball teams.
He left Hamersville in 1970 to coach basketball and track at Circleville High School, but after only a year at Circleville he would return to the Western Brown School District and took the job as eighth grade boys basketball at Mt. Orab Middle School, coaching teams that finished either first or second in league standings every year.
In 1979, Ogden transferred to Western Brown High School, and in 1980 he was hired to take over a struggling high school girls basketball program.
For the next 14 years, Ogden built the Lady Bronco varsity basketball program into one of the best programs in Southwest Ohio.
As head coach of the Western Brown varsity girls basketball program, he would record a total of 235 wins while leading his teams to nine Clermont County League and Southern Buckeye Conference titles, one district runner-up finish (1988), and a Southwest District Championship in 1994. The district title marks the only one for varsity girls basketball in Western Brown history.
Ogden is not only well known for being an excellent “X’s and O’s” coach, but also for the relationships he built with his players and peers.
Ogden could motivate players like no other, giving high fives to his players at school on game days and doing anything he could to help “pump up” his team for game time.
For more than 30 years, Ogden would own and operate Ogden’s Softball Park that would receive a USSSA Merit Award in 1993. In 2005, Ogden was inducted into the USSSA Softball Legends of the Game Hall of Fame.
Ogden would go on to serve as a Brown County Commissioner from 2001-2009 and helped to make some major changes that have been beneficial to the county.
Perry Ogden and his wife, Candi, were married in 1966 and have four sons – Scott, Steve, Shane, and Shiloh – all who graduated as student/athletes of Western Brown High School.
Among the many lives Ogden had a positive impact on over the years was that of current Western Brown High School girls basketball coach, Tim Chadwell.
“He was my eighth grade basketball coach and he had a tremendous influence on me,” Chadwell said of the late Perry Ogden. “He also became a good friend in adulthood.”
Chadwell, who works to put together the Perry Ogden Classic each year, has enjoyed a great deal of success as a longtime coach and former athlete of Brown County, giving much credit to Ogden. For the Western Brown School District, the Perry Ogden Junior High Classic is a great way to help keep the memory of Perry Ogden alive.