Coaching Staff

Head Coach

Joe Bills

Joe Bills is entering his seventh season as a Boy's Basketball Coach at Upper Arlington, and his first as head coach for the Bears. Prior to the 2017-2018 season, Bills spent four years as the head varsity coach at St. Francis DeSales High School, leading the Stallions to a Regional Runners-up finish in 2016 along with being named Metro Coach-of-the-Year by The Columbus Dispatch. Bills started his head coaching career at Lancaster Fisher Catholic, where he led the Irish from 2011 to 2013. As an assistant, Bills also spent three seasons at his alma mater, Zanesville Bishop Rosecrans, four seasons at Bluffton (SC) High School, and one season at New Albany High School.

As a player, Bills was a two-time state player-of-the-year while at Rosecrans and helped lead the Bishops to a 1997 State Runners-up finish and four Central Catholic League titles. In college, Bills started for three years at Wright State University, helping the Raiders knock off eventual National Champions Michigan State in 1999. Bills is a member of the Bishop Rosecrans Athletic Hall of Fame as well as the OHSBCA District 12 Hall of Fame, and in 2016, he became the first player in Rosecrans boys basketball history to have his jersey retired. He stands as the school's second all-time leading scorer for boys basketball.

Bills teaches English/Language Arts at Upper Arlington High School and resides in Canal Winchester with his wife, Megan, son, Harrison (4), and daughter, Annabelle (2).

Assistant Coach

Jim Hartley

Coach Jim Hartley attended the University of Wisconsin before transferring to The Ohio State University, where he played varsity basketball and baseball.  After graduating from OSU, he spent 32 years with IBM in marketing.  This will be his 15th year as an assistant varsity coach for Golden Bear Basketball.

Coach Hartley has three children: Lance, Heather, and Trevor.

Assistant Coach

Shane McCloskey

Shane McCloskey enters his first season with the Upper Arlington Basketball program after six seasons as an assistant baseball coach at Upper Arlington. Prior to relocating from New Jersey, Shane coached basketball at the Freshman, JV, and Varsity levels for 15 years. Additionally, he worked camps, clinics, and exposure events for The Hoop Group, as well as, serving as a camp counselor at Eastern Invitational Basketball Camp, Pocono Invitational Basketball Camp, Bob Hurley Camps, and others.

Shane is a product of Kean University and is in his 23rd year as an Intervention Specialist and is currently the Intervention Department Chair at Upper Arlington High School. He resides in Columbus with his wife, Rebecca, and their son, Kaeden.

Assistant Coach

Dwight Peterson

Dwight Peterson has spent years coaching basketball at the High School and Collegiate level. He has served as both a Head Coach and an Assistant Coach. He and his wife Bonnie have 4 married children and 11 grandchildren. He currently serves on the staff at the Captial Church in Upper Arlington.

Assistant Coach

John Staley

Coach Staley has been with the Upper Arlington Boy’s Basketball program since 2021. Prior to UA, he spent three years at Lakota East High School coaching and teaching. Coach Staley also spent two years at Winthrop University coaching with Pat Kelsey. In 2018, Winthrop made it into the NCAA’s March Madness tournament, before losing to Chris Holtmann’s very talented Butler University team.

In college, Coach Staley played at Northern Kentucky before transferring to the University of Findlay and finishing his career there. As a three-year collegiate starter, he set a school and conference record for field goal percentage in a career (69%) and for a season (74%), and was named to the all-defensive team as a junior and senior.

Coach Staley lives with his wife, Sara in Hilliard. They currently have two dogs and like to spend their free time hiking and camping in national parks.

Assistant Coach

Jeremy Stuhlfauth

This is Coach Stuhlfauth’s first year coaching Upper Arlington basketball. He spent the 2013 - 2018 seasons as head coach at Linden-McKinley High School. At Linden-McKinley, Coach Stuhlfauth helped turnaround a program that had zero wins in 2012 and then had back to back years of 15 wins in his final two years where they competed for district championships twice.

Prior to Linden-McKinley, Coach Stuhlfauth coached for two years as the JV coach at Whetstone High School. Coach Stuhlfauth was the c0-valedictorian of his class at Whetstone High School in Columbus, Ohio. At Whetstone, he played soccer, basketball, and volleyball where he was a captain of each team his senior year. Coach Stuhlfauth earned his Bachelor of Science in Mathematics (2009) from Denison University and earned his Masters in Education from The Ohio State University (2010). Coach Stuhlfauth is in his 13 th year as a teacher and his 4 th year as a teacher at Upper Arlington High School where he teaches math.

He lives in Olentangy with his wife, Katie, his daughters Maddie and Emmy, and his dog Eleanor.

JV Head Coach

Ryan Guthrie

Ryan is in his first year coaching for Upper Arlington basketball and is excited to join the program. For the last 6 years he has been coaching basketball at Dublin Scioto, mainly as the head freshman coach and some years as varsity assistant. Before that he coached the 8th grade basketball team for over 10 years at St. Andrew in Upper Arlington, and a few years coaching 8th grade baseball there as well.

Ryan attended and graduated in 2003 from Bishop Watterson High School where he played basketball, baseball, and ran cross country. He attended and graduated in 2007 from The Ohio State University with a degree in Sports Management and has been working for The Ohio State Athletic Department now for more than 15 years.

Ryan lives in Northwest Columbus with his dog Bobby Cox.

Freshman Head Coach

Justin McClelland

Freshman Assistant Coach

John Bills

John Bills is extremely excited for the opportunity to begin his coaching career with the Golden Bears. He is the younger brother of Head Coach Joe Bills and has several years coaching youth basketball in Central Ohio, most recently with St. Matthew’s in Gahanna, OH. John played football at Ohio Dominican University here in Columbus and resides in Gahanna, OH with his wife, Sarah and his children Olivia, Brendan and their dog Annie.