Aiken coach Derrell Black sits in a chair with a clipboard explaining a play to the Aiken Falcons varsity men's basketball team.

Derrell Black helped Aiken Falcons soar to new heights

The UC alum and longtime coach announced his well-earned retirement after a truly stunning season

By Rodney Wilson Email Rodney

12 minute read April 23, 2025

The 2024-25 season for Aiken High School varsity boys basketball team was, without overstating things, a really big deal for Cincinnati sports.

Following years of unimpressive showings, the team, which is part of the Cincinnati Public School district, plowed through the regular season on a stunning 26-1 run. The Aiken Falcons took their dynamic gameplay all the way to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III state final, securing runner-up status in the state championship after a razor-thin loss to Louisville to end the season 27-2.

None of this was a given and came as something of a surprise to Falcons’ coach Derrell Black, too. That’s not to say he was shocked – the result was the end product of years of deliberate choices as he worked to rebuild and optimize a team culture. What was shocking, though, was Black’s recent announcement of his retirement from coaching after 13 years.

But Black is a man of determined perspective, and the retirement announcement is another example of both his dedication to excellence and commitment to community improvement.

We’ll get to all that, though.

Hooping at Hughes

Darrell Black holds a the state runner-up trophy aloft after the OHSSA 2025 championship final game.

Derrell Black holds a the state runner-up trophy aloft after the OHSAA 2025 boys basketball state tournament final game. Photos courtesy of Black

Hughes STEM High School plays a central role in Black’s life, starting with the years he studied and played basketball at the Clifton-area school. He graduated high school on Hughes' education track, then headed across the street to the University of Cincinnati to start his collegiate career in the School of Education. But basketball stayed on his mind, and, figuring he wasn’t quite up to making the UC team, he enrolled at Trine University in Angola, Indiana, (where his best friend was a student) to play for the school.

After a year in Indiana, Black re-enrolled at UC (“I was like, well, you know, I’m probably not gonna make it to the NBA, so it's time to get back to the hometown”) and, following his desire to impact local communities, moved to secure a degree as a student in the School of Criminal Justice.

“I came from a community that was full of crime and violence,” he explains. “I wanted to be able to get into a field where I can help people before they go down the wrong path. Or for the ones who did end up incarcerated or whatnot, be able to help from the inside to rehabilitate them and get them back out in the community to make positive, proactive choices.”

When asked if he has any impactful memories from his time in the College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, and Information Technology, a broad smile overtakes Black’s face. “Susan Burke,” he says, referencing the longtime and beloved Criminal Justice undergraduate director and professor emeritus who helped scores of students secure meaningful careers during her tenure at UC.

“Probably the best professor I ever had. She was always just down to earth, and her office hours were, like, unlimited. She was always available to talk,” he says, adding, “She is a lifelong reference. She got me my first job, and I could probably call her right now and she could get me a job in the criminal justice field.”

The step into coaching

Ultimately, Black didn't end up in the criminal justice field, instead moving back into education and coaching to put his passion for community improvement to work. But it was an education-related corrections job that set him on the path toward teaching and athletics leadership.

Darrell Black smiles as he stands courtside at a game.

Black smiling as he stands courtside at a game.

“While I was doing criminal justice, I ended up working at Hillcrest,” he says, referencing the Springfield Township residential facility for at-risk teens that closed in 2023 (but is set to re-open soon). “I was coaching the team.” He was finishing up classes at the UC campus during this time and happened to run into an old friend from high school (“You know, UC is right across the street from Hughes”) who made him a compelling offer.

“He was like, hey, come coach the junior high team with me,” says Black. “The next thing you know, I'm coaching the team." Off the court, he accepted a position as an employment coach with local nonprofit Cincinnati Works, but his enthusiasm for coaching basketball was obvious to all those around him. "The coach at Hughes at that time was like, look, man, if you really want to do coaching, you probably need to become a teacher.”

With his background in education, Black understoond the value he could bring to a learning environment. So a few years after graduating from the Criminal Justice program, he headed back to school for a master’s in secondary education and teaching, then started teaching physical education and coaching basketball in the Cincinnati Public School District.

And in 2020, he received word of an open position that would end up changing his life.

Taking on the rivals

“I was actually assistant coaching at Princeton High School with my old Hughes coach, who had taken a job at Princeton,” explains Black. “Somebody reached out to me like, yo man, you need to apply for the job to be the coach of Aiken. And I'm like, Aiken High School? That was a rival of Hughes when I was in school. No way!”

Giving it some thought, though, Black eventually decided he should give the position a shot. And it didn’t hurt that Princeton was urging him to test for a social studies teaching role, while Aiken offered a physical education teacher spot. “That kind of made it even better – get a job in the district and become a PE teacher.”

He was offered (and accepted) the Aiken position and immediately got to work transforming a varsity basketball team that had struggled for years to find success on the court. “When I decided to take that job, none of my peers, none of my friends wanted to coach with me,” laughs Black. “They thought it was crazy.”

Black’s approach to the head coaching duties was to run the varsity team like a college program, seeking to bring a sense of professionalism and consistency to the job in an effort to instill pride in his players. He set up, in his words, “a rigorous schedule.”

“We would go to school all day. Once school is out, you get 30 minutes to go get food or whatever. You go to study tables for an hour, you go to film for 30 minutes. Then you got the weight room and then you go to practice for two hours,” he explains. “And that's every day.”

The homework table was important to Black, who often assured parents their students would have homework done when they arrived home, as classroom performance was weighted equally with on-court performance for him. This represented a new approach for the Falcons, and right away he had to dismiss four seniors from the team who were, as he says, “stuck on the old ways.”

“You can't play on this basketball team if you don't take school serious.”

Derrell Black Former Head Coach, Aiken Falcons Varsity Boys Basketball

He played an uncommon amount of sophomores that first year, expecting losses from such a young team. “But we knew that when that group became seniors – which was this year – we would have some success. We didn't know it would be this good, but we knew we were trending in the right direction just from the stability, schedule and accountability that we brought.”

Black’s bet paid off this past season, as the Aiken Falcons flew through 21 games undefeated, very nearly achieving a perfect 22-game season before Trotwood handed the team its first defeat with a putback buzzer beater – in the final game of regular-season play.

“I remember going into the locker room, and I had a smile on my face,” says Black. “All the kids were crying and upset that they didn't do it, and I said this is exactly what we needed, to humble ourselves before we go to the tournament. You need to see what it feels like to lose so you don't want to ever have this feeling again.”

Aiken almost took the tournament championship trophy, too, only losing the final matchup with Louisville by two points in a 61-63 game. And though the result wasn’t what the Falcons hoped for, the 2024-25 season was a remarkable boost for a team that came so far in such short time. “The news was in here, the school was buzzing – I mean, the atmosphere was amazing,” says Black. “It was definitely surreal. We remember those days when we first came in and it was like a graveyard for basketball here.”

And then, following the historic 27-2 season, Black announced in late March that he was retiring from coaching, surprising everyone – even himself.

A well-earned retirement

Derrell Black stands with hands on hips as he contemplates gameplay from the sidelines

Black contemplates gameplay from the sidelines.

Black’s reasons for retirement make sense – a head coach position is an arduous commitment on top of education duties (he will retain his PE teaching job with Aiken). And after 13 years of coaching, he has definitely earned a shot at a more normal life.

He’s involved in ministry efforts and plans to spend more time on related responsibilities. And, as a family man, he’s ready to finally spend nights and weekends with his wife and kids. In fact, it was during a conversation with his wife following the championship game that prompted him to decide, on the spot, that his days of coaching needed to be over.

He can’t exactly say he was ready, but the time had been coming for a while.

“I never sought out to grow up to be a coach when I was younger,” he says. “But it was rewarded because of the impact that I had on young guys all over.” He reports receiving comments from past players he’d coached thanking him for being a role model and calling him the best coach they’d ever had. “To have that impact on guys, even without having to be the head coach, was something that made me happy.”

Black is proud of the positive effect he's been able to have on the Aiken Falcons during his time as coach, and he’s pleased to stick around as a teacher to help out where he can. Moreover, his time as head coach enabled him to make a lasting impact in a way that rings true to his lifelong desire to improve lives and lift up communities.

But refocusing time he’d previously dedicated to the 100-percent effort he gave coaching has been truly life changing. “I can go grocery shopping, I can do laundry—you know, stuff that normal people do every day,” he says. “I'm finding out how much time I actually have now. It's been good.”

Featured image at top: Derrell Black explains a play to the Aiken varsity boys basketball team. Photo courtesy of Cincinnati Public Schools.

About the School of Criminal Justice

The University of Cincinnati School of Criminal Justice, part of the College of Education, Criminal Justice, Human Services, and Information Technology, is one of the top-ranked schools for criminal justice in the country. With a range of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees; highly experienced faculty; impactful centers; and study abroad opportunities, the School of Criminal Justice continues to make a positive impact on the world around us.