Coming up through the junior varsity baseball team at Hamilton High School in the mid-2000s, Chris Mahon knew he was in good hands with Tim Reed coaching him.
Years later as Northwest High School’s varsity baseball coach, Mahon was still learning from Reed.
The two squared off twice a year for the three seasons Reed served as Talawanda’s varsity baseball coach from 2016 to 2018.
“A couple years ago, his first year at Talawanda, we were playing there and it was tied in the bottom of the seventh inning, and I could just feel it coming,” Mahon recalled of a game between Northwest and Talawanda in 2016.
“Sure enough, he stole home on me to win it. I was like, ‘You got me.’ Years later he’s still coaching me, doing it the right way and of course he just smiled. That was Tim Reed.”
Reed, a longtime baseball, football and basketball coach in the Hamilton City School District, died suddenly on Jan. 14 at age 57, but he left a lasting impression on those who knew him and especially those who played for him.
Mahon enjoyed playing for Reed from 2004 to 2006 and knew him well before that as his older brothers, Nick and Nate, also went through Reed’s junior varsity baseball program. Reed worked in the district for 30 years before retiring in 2015, then becoming Talawanda’s head coach the following spring.
“He was always shouting orders from the dugout, but you knew he was gentle and kind,” Mahon said. “He always had a big smile on his face. He was just a great guy. You’d get that sentiment from everyone you talk to about him. I coached against him the last three or four years, and he was still the same guy 15-20 years later, gentle and kind. You knew he would be hard on you, but you would be taken care of. You were getting quality coaching from a quality coach.”
In his only stint as a varsity head coach, Reed was 26-53 in three years at Talawanda but regardless of wins and losses, his players always knew they were learning something from him.
Reed, who was inducted into the Hamilton Athletic Hall of Fame in 2016, played college baseball at Belmont for four years and was an All-Ohio baseball and basketball player at Taft, where he graduated in 1979. He hit 24 home runs in three seasons with Taft’s baseball team and has the most pitching wins in Hamilton history.
“Growing up in Big Blue baseball, I just thought Tim was larger than life — him and coach (Dan) Bowling together,” Mahon said. “You knew he was going to get you to varsity. That’s where guys appreciated him. You knew you were getting taken care of on JV to be a better player for Dan. He was grooming you for the next level.”
Reed’s soft demeanor made it easy for players to like him and want to listen to him – the ultimate “player’s coach.”
Hamilton assistant athletic director Tyler Belew said the day after Reed’s death, he and some other guys were sharing stories from their experience playing for Reed and it dawned on him then how many people were impacted by his old JV coach.
“He dedicated decades to teaching and coaching, so just thinking of the sheer number of people he coached, that is a lot of lives impacted, and everyone had the same experience,” said Belew, who played junior varsity baseball for Reed from 2004 to 2005.
“You don’t find that now. I’ve never heard another coach, another player, current player or past, ever say a bad thing about the guy. In today’s society that speaks volumes for who he was as a person, parent, coach and individual. It’s too easy to pass the buck and blame something on a coach nowadays, but that never happened with Coach Reed. He was that well-liked.”
Perhaps best known for his constant Coke drinking, Reed had a laid-back personality and it was clear he genuinely cared about others. He was fair and just and rarely raised his voice, according to his former players.
Those that went on to coaching careers can trace their paths back to Reed because of the positive experience he gave them as players.
“Coach Reed was an unbelievable person,” said Hamilton freshman boys basketball coach Jake Turner, who played baseball for Reed in 2008 and coached basketball under him when Turner first began as an assistant in 2012. “Every time you were around him he made you feel you were the most important person in the room. He was always locked in, always asked about your family. He was the reason I got into coaching, seeing how he coached, how he treated people and the difference he made in people’s lives. He was a great mentor for me. I try to give back as much as I can some of the stuff I learned from him. That’s the least I can do because I appreciate all he did for me.”