Bova to coach boys hoops at Oak Ridge

Cody Bova (left) coaches the freshman boys' basketball team at Notre Dame Regional High School in this undated photo. Bova is the newly-named head boys' coach at Oak Ridge High.

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Cody Bova, the newly-named head boys’ basketball coach at Oak Ridge High School, is following in the wake of a successful predecessor – and he knows it.

Bova succeeds the retired Chris Trimmer as skipper of the Bluejays this fall.

Trimmer, 60, left the coaching ranks due to ongoing concern about the COVID-19 pandemic after amassing a 53-30 record in three seasons at the rural Class 1 school in northwestern Cape Girardeau County.

“(Trimmer) has put a great program in place (here),” said Bova, “and I just want to keep doing what he’s done.”

Trimmer recommended Bova’s hiring to the latter’s first-ever varsity head coaching job.

Bova, 38, has been around the game all his life – as shooting guard at Ste. Genevieve High School (2000 graduate) and as an assistant coach in Oran, Scott City, Saxony Lutheran and most recently, Notre Dame.

Bova will meet his new players and their parents for the first time Friday.

Married with two small children, Bova will continue his classroom teaching of social studies and physical education at Immaculate Conception in Jackson.

Asked to name a coach he particularly admired, Bova identified Gonzaga’s Mark Few.

“I like (Few’s) work ethic,” he said, “(and) he built a quality program there and stayed (there).”

Oak Ridge is scheduled to tip off the 2020-21 season November 30 in the Woodland Invitational tournament.