Ed Heintschel has been the face of the St. John's Jesuit High School boys’ basketball program for 32 years, winning more games and league championships than any coach in City League history.

But how many people know that Heintschel, 60, grew up in the 700 block of Euclid Avenue on Toledo's east side?

Heintschel's household included two sisters, one brother and their mother, Anne, who paid the bills by working at Owens-Illinois. The family patriarch, Edward, died when the younger Ed was 2 years old, leaving Anne to raise four children on her own.

“She was a single parent and never remarried until much later in life,” Heintschel said. “My mom was a very strict mom and we had a lot of respect for her. We rarely stepped out of line. I had a very happy childhood. We had a cottage on Wamplers Lake (in Michigan's Irish Hills) in the summertime. We had fun.”

East Toledo native and St. John's coach Ed Heintschel talks to an official. (Press photo by Scott Grau)

Heintschel, an English teacher at St. John's, maintains a home in Michigan but he remains close to his East Toledo roots.

“I'm very fond of the east side,” he said. “I've kept my roots, I think, intact in my mind and my heart.”

Heintschel attended the old St. Louis Elementary School, located on Sixth Street, but chose to go to St. Francis de Sales High School instead of Waite.

“I wanted to go to Central Catholic,” Heintschel said, “but at the time they had just built Cardinal Stritch and east-siders couldn't go to Central. They (Catholic Diocese of Toledo) wanted to stabilize Stritch and didn't want us to go to Central. We could go to St. Francis. I didn't have a father, so I think my mother wanted me in an all-male environment. And, it was college-prep.”

After graduating from St. Francis in 1968, Heintschel, who said he was an “OK” forward on the Knights' basketball team, went to St. Joseph's College in Indiana for two years before finishing up at the University of Toledo.

Heintschel wanted a coaching gig after college so he contacted Stritch, St. Francis and Central for a freshman basketball position.

“None of them had openings, but St. John's had a 'B' coaching position (under varsity coach Tim Smith),” Heintschel said. “I got hired at St. John's as an English teacher, freshman football coach and jayvee basketball coach and I did that for five years.”

He became the athletic director and varsity boys’ basketball coach at St. John's in 1979, but his first season with the Titans didn't go so well.

“We were 4-15 and we were really bad,” Heintschel said. “I played all sophomores.”

Needless to say, Heintschel turned things around.

His career record stands at 574-179 with 12 CL titles, 12 district titles and six regional titles. This season's team was ranked No. 4 in the Associated Press poll and finished 20-3, losing to Central Catholic, 63-59, in the Division I district finals at UT.

Heintschel has guided St. John's to six state tournament berths and three state runner-up finishes (1993, 1996 and 2004). His 1993 team, which finished 23-5, lost to Cincinnati Elder, 62-53, in the D-I finals, and the 1996 team (24-4) lost to Cincinnati LaSalle, 59-56, in the state championship game.

The Titans' 2004 team (23-5), led by three Division I-bound athletes — Brian Roberts (Dayton), B.J. Raymond (Xavier) and Zach Hillesland (Notre Dame) — lost to Hamilton, 51-48. Heintschel's youngest son, Ted, was also on that team.

“That was the only team I thought that we should have won with,” Heintschel said. “The other years could have gone any number of ways.”

Heintschel and his wife, Cheryl, who passed away nine years ago in June, were married nearly 24 years and raised two sons and a daughter. Damion, 35, who wrestled at St. John's, is a teacher living in Seattle; Kim, 28, is a teacher living in Charlotte, N.C.; Ted works in the health care field and lives in Chicago.

Heintschel said he never anticipated his coaching career lasting for more than three decades.

“I thought I would be in and out of education pretty quickly,” he said. “The Jesuits got a hold of me and here I sit, 37 years later. It's amazing. What happens is, you get attached to kids and then it's, 'well, I'll see this guy through.' Then there's another kid and I'll see this guy through. I almost got out in the early 1980s, but we had a season that was really rewarding and after that, I never really thought about getting out.”

Heintschel added that he doesn't continue coaching just to get that elusive state championship.

“I was disappointed this year with the way things ended,” he said, “but those things happen. A state title has never been a goal. You always want to win, and we've accomplished a lot, but my career won't be defined by one game.”

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