- OXFORD - The Butler County sports community lost a friend
and a legend Friday morning when Steve Termeer died in his sleep at his
Oxford home at the age of 52.
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- Termeer coached boys and girls basketball for 19 1/2
seasons before being diagnosed with the terminal Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
in October 2002.
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- He is survived by his wife, Pam, and their three daughters,
Carey, 28, Kelley, 25, and Amy, 21.
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- "He was a great family man who treated us like princesses,"
Kelley said. "He smiled and laughed a lot, and he had so much energy.
He lived life to the fullest."
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- Termeer, who won 232 career games and numerous Coach
of the Year awards at Talawanda, Miamisburg, Edgewood and Fairfield high
schools, will be inducted into the Greater Cincinnati Basketball Hall of
Fame later this month.
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- "Steve was a gentleman and gentle man," longtime
friend Dirk Allen said. "He has a wonderful family, and he left a
great legacy as far as basketball in Southwest Ohio is concerned. I feel
lucky that we were friends for more than two decades."
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- In addition to his coaching success, Termeer also was
a well respected math teacher. After graduating from Dublin High School
in 1969, he earned both his bachelor's degree (1973) and master's degree
(1974) from Miami University, where he later taught math as an adjunct
professor from 1990-94 during a four-year hiatus from basketball.
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- "His sense of energy and commitment toward education
and athletics was professional to the highest degree," said Jack Crain,
Termeer's assistant at Fairfield and a friend of 30 years. "He was
a true asset in both fields. He was so dedicated to doing the best he could
for kids."
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- While at Talawanda, Termeer guided the Braves to the
district championship and the school's first-ever regional appearance in
1983. At Edgewood he took the Cougars to the district final in 1995, and
he led the FHS girls to the district title and a first-ever regional appearance
in 2001.
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- None of those teams have equaled those performances since.
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- Just a few weeks before the 2002-03 season was to begin,
Termeer was diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Suffering from gradually
intensifying memory loss, he resigned from both his teaching and coaching
positions.
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- According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders
and Stroke, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare, degenerative, invariably
fatal brain disorder. It affects about one person in every one million
people per year worldwide. In the U.S. there are only about 200 cases per
year.
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- A private funeral will be held in Dublin next week, and
a public memorial in Oxford will be scheduled later in April.
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- "I don't think we'll ever be able to count how many
people whose lives he touched through teaching and coaching," Kelley
said. "For the last 18 months, the outpouring of love and support
from the community has been nonstop. And I think that says a lot about
my dad and the kind of person he was."
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