Mike Violette earned seven varsity letters at Stivers, 2 each in football and track and three in basketball. He was a very promising quarterback in football, but that career was cut short in his sophomore year because of concussions. Mike had an outstanding senior year for the Stivers Tigers basketball team, gaining All-City honors in 1969.
After graduation Mike attended and played basketball for Sinclair Community College for his freshman year. He then received a scholarship to Bethel College in Tennessee where he was a three year starter in basketball, and selected as team captain his senior year. They were league champions in 1973, rated eighth nationally in the NAIA. Mike returned to Dayton after undergraduate school to teach, coach, and continue his education. He obtained his Master’s degree from the University of Dayton. Mike taught and coached in the Dayton Public Schools for 33 years, with 21 of those years at Stivers.
Always a team player and leader he naturally turned to coaching and had great success at Stivers-Patterson H.S. from 1978 to 1985. His girls track team won eight consecutive city championships, four sectionals, two regionals, and three top ten finishes in the state track meet. Mike was inducted into the Roosevelt Relays Coaches Hall of Fame. As the boy’s basketball coach, he had a 63-34 record. In 1986 Mike’s Patterson H.S. basketball team with Anthony Corbitt, a future Hall of Famer with the University of Dayton, won 20 and lost only 4 games. They were eliminated in the sectional finals by Alter, rated first in the state at that time. In 1989, Mike’s team defeated Dunbar H.S., which was rated fourth in the nation at the time and had not been defeated at home in five years.
For many years, Mike played in area softball leagues. In 2003 Mike was inducted into the Dayton Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame.
Mike has been married to Penny Booher for 28 years, who herself comes from a family of outstanding athletes. She was All-Around State Champion in gymnastics for Belmont H.S. Mike and Penny have two children, Kyle and Whitney, and three grandchildren. They reside in East Dayton.
