Two-time ACC Coach of the Year and ESPN College Game Day analyst Seth Greenberg and ESPN analyst and former NBA player LaPhonso Ellis will emcee the Ohio High School Sports Awards, presented by Mercy Health. They will join a familiar voice for Ohio State University Buckeyes fans, Paul Keels, who will announce award winners for more than 25 sports.
The Ohio High School Sports Awards is part of the largest high school sports recognition program in the country. Top athletes in most state-sanctioned sports will be honored during an on-demand streaming broadcast at 8 p.m. EDT, Thursday July 15 on the event website.
Greenberg is an ESPN basketball analyst, a member of the College GameDay team and a former college basketball coach. Before joining ESPN, Greenberg coached basketball for 34 years, the last 22 of which were spent as a head coach at Long Beach State, the University of South Florida and Virginia Tech. He notched four wins against No. 1 ranked teams and in his nine seasons with Virginia Tech, compiled a 170–123 record and earned ACC Coach of the Year honors twice.
In the 1992 NBA Draft Ellis was selected fifth overall by the Denver Nuggets. In his rookie season, he averaged 14.7 points, 9.1 rebounds and 1.4 blocks and was named to the 1992–93 All-Rookie First Team. He played professionally for 11 years, then became an ESPN college basketball analyst in 2009.
Keels serves as the radio voice of the Ohio State University football and men’s basketball teams while also hosting the Buckeye Roundtable, the Ryan Day Show and the Chris Holtman Show. He is a four-time Ohio Broadcaster of the Year Award recipient and a member of the Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame.
The Ohio High School Sports Awards is a statewide student athlete recognition program. The Ohio show will be held after the regional shows, including the Central Ohio High School Sports Awards, the Cincinnati High School Sports Awards, the Greater Akron High School Sports Awards, the Portage County High School Sports Awards, the Stark County High School Sports Awards and the Wayne and Holmes County High School Sports Awards.
The Ohio statewide show recognizes the best athletes across the entire state, meaning some of the local winners could be honored in the statewide show as well. Ohio's Athletes of the Year and the overall Male and Female Athletes of the Year for Ohio will automatically become honorees in the inaugural USA TODAY High School Sports Awards and be among the candidates for the national awards.
Honoree selections for state sanctioned sports featured in the show will be announced on the event website at the beginning of July.
The show will be free to watch on any smart device or computer thanks to support from sponsors, including Mercy Health.
Celebrity announcers that will also be a part of the Ohio show include:
- NBA Champion, MVP and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Class of 2020 inductee Kevin Garnett
- Three-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers
- Two-time FIFA World Cup soccer champion Alex Morgan
- Five-time swimming Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky
- Three-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh Jennings
- National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Chipper Jones
- Youngest wrestling gold medalist and World Champion Kyle Snyder
- U.S. Women's Gymnastics gold and silver medalist Laurie Hernandez
- Three-time Pro Bowler and two-time First-Team All-Pro outside linebacker T.J. Watt
- Most successful female tennis player of the open era Martina Navratilova
- Olympic gold and silver medalist and World Champion softball pitcher Jennie Finch
- U.S. Women’s National Field Hockey Team midfielder Amanda Magadan
- Three-time MVP, World Champion and co-founder of the Premier Lacrosse League Paul Rabil
- Hockey Hall of Famer Martin St. Louis
- Four-time Olympic gold medalist and eight-time World Championship gold medalist Michael Johnson
- 14-time National Champion Cheer Coach Monica Aldama
- Olympic gold medalist and four-time World Cup Skiing Champion Lindsey Vonn
- Four-time PGA Tour winner Ryan Palmer
- American Ultra Marathoner Dean Karnazes
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