Now, he gets a shot at leading the green and white.
Badin named Cosgrove as its 13th boys basketball coach in the school’s 59-year history on Wednesday.
“I am a Badin guy. It’s my school. It’s my community,” said Cosgrove, who applied for the head coaching job twice before. “What I’ve shared is that I just didn’t want to look back at it with regret. I didn’t want to look back and say that the opportunity passed me by because I was scared of being rejected.
“I owe it to the kids to give it a shot. So, I gave it a shot.”
Cosgrove put in his application for the position on Monday — the deadline. Badin athletic director Geoff Melzer said he received 21 applicants for the job.
“You know the passion I have and the relationship I have with those kids,” Cosgrove said. “I couldn’t let those kids go through a third different staff in however many years. So, I had to do it. I just felt that I had to. It wasn’t for me — it was for everybody else.”
Cosgrove said he was at a Mason practice on Monday with CJ Fleming, who coached at Badin the last two seasons. Cosgrove was Fleming’s assistant.
“It took a while,” Cosgrove said. “I was literally the last minute. I put my name in around 6:30 — basically 48 hours ago. It’s been a whirlwind.”
Cosgrove said he met with Melzer late last week to express his appreciation for the Badin community and what the school has done for him and his family.
“But I asked him the question, ‘Am I making a mistake not putting my name in?’” Cosgrove explained. “Am I wasting my time if I do not put my name in because, candidly, they passed over me a couple times prior. Selfishly, I was scared of being rejected a third time no matter how bad I wanted it.
“I took the weekend to reflect, and I wanted to be a head coach,” Cosgrove added. “I know that there’s only one place where I want to be a head coach at and that’s Badin High School.
“It turns out that third time’s a charm. I’m elated the administration saw what they needed to see in me, and they’re trusting me to take this program forward. It comes down to that place being special to us for a long time. They’ve welcomed me with open arms.”
The Rams have won back-to-back district championships in two seasons under Fleming before bowing in the regional semifinals each year. The Rams went 35-18 in those two years, including a 19-7 mark in 2024-25 — Badin’s most boys wins since the 1997-98 team went to the state semifinals.
“We are excited to have Ben as our head coach,” Melzer said. “He has a great relationship with the kids. He knows the game, and he’s going to do a great job with the next chapter of Badin boys basketball.”
Cosgrove also served as a varsity assistant for Pat Kreke for two years and for Gerry Weisgerber for three seasons in what was the latter’s second stint as the BHS head coach. Both are in the Badin Athletic Hall of Fame — Weisgerber having guided the Rams to a 28-0 record and the 1988 Division III state title.
“I picked up a lot from two 300-game winners,” Cosgrove said of Weisgerber and Kreke. “I like some of the up-tempo stuff that (girls head coach) Tom Sunderman does. But at the end of the day, it will start at the defensive end for us, just like it did with Coach Fleming.“I don’t want to change much,” Cosgrove added of what he would bring to the court. “The last two years have provided a model for what we can do with great defense. We’ll do a lot of the same stuff.”
Cosgrove is a 1999 Purcell Marian graduate, where he was a four-sport athlete. He attended college at Ohio State and Miami University and is currently the founder and president of Headline Sports in Hamilton.
He and his wife — the former Melissa Hinkel, a 1996 Badin graduate — are the parents of four children: Laney, Gracie, Emersyn and Quinn.
Gracie is a senior at Badin who set the school’s all-time basketball scoring record — boys or girls — with 1,342 points for a squad that made four straight trips to the regional finals. She also set the school’s single-game scoring record (48) as a sophomore and will sign to play at Ohio Dominican on April 30.
Ben Cosgrove has extensive coaching experience, including time with the West Virginia Thunder — one of the premier AAU girls teams in the country. He is a former boys assistant at Purcell Marian and the founder of H-Brand Basketball, an eight-grade-and-under AAU program. Cosgrove was also the first Junior Rams coach when his oldest daughter Laney was in the fifth grade.
“I’m unbelievably grateful and appreciative that CJ kept me around,” Cosgrove said. “I’m very thankful for Weisgerber, Kreke and Fleming preparing me for this moment, and I won’t let them down. I won’t let the community down. I won’t let the kids down. We’re going to keep rolling.”
About the Author