CINCINNATI — Taft High School plans to host the first Mark Mitchell Classic basketball event during Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend in January 2026.
The plan is for the event to be an eight-team high school boys basketball tournament with each team competing in three games, according to Taft athletic director Austin Gullett. The games would be scheduled Saturday through Monday (Jan. 17-19, 2026).
Mitchell, who led the Taft boys basketball team to its first state championship in 2011, died in March 2024. He was 56 years old.
Mitchell was the Wilberforce University men's basketball coach during the 2023-24 season — his fourth season with the program.
Prior to Wilberforce, Mitchell returned to coach high school basketball in the Cincinnati area after he had been an Ohio State women's basketball assistant coach for five seasons.
Mitchell helped his daughter, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, become Ohio State’s first four-time All-American in women’s basketball. Kelsey Mitchell became the fastest player in NCAA women's basketball history to reach 2,000 points en route to becoming the program's all-time scoring leader.
“We are super excited to honor ‘Coach Mitch’ by having the first annual Mark Mitchell Classic in January 2026,” Gullett said. “Coach Mitch’s impact not only on the Taft community, but the basketball community in the Greater Cincinnati area are beyond measure. Taft basketball would not be where we are today without the influence of Coach Mitch. He set the standard, the culture and put Taft basketball on the map.”
Mitchell earned a 221-50 record over 11 seasons at Taft including the 2011 Division III state championship in the Senators’ first state final appearance. Taft won 25 games that season and never lost to an Ohio team.
During Mitchell's Taft head coaching tenure from 2002 to 2013, the Senators won eight Cincinnati Metro Athletic Conference titles, nine sectional and four district titles and the state championship. For his efforts, he was voted CMAC coach of the year eight times.
"Coach Mark Mitchell was a motivational and inspirational coach that always shared his passion and energy with the students of CPS," Cincinnati Public Schools Athletics Manager Josh Hardin said of Mitchell in 2024.
"He was a different kind of coach, he was a state champion level coach that elevated the students and staff around him."
Mitchell turned around the Senators’ program instantly in his first year, going 22-3 and winning the city championship after inheriting a program coming off 10 consecutive losing seasons, according to his coaching biography.
Gullett said Mitchell’s legacy still lives on today.
“He’s a state champion, a father, a mentor and most importantly a true Senator,” Gullett said.
