By Austin Bishop
McADAMS — Kenyon Ross has been hired as the new boys and girls basketball coach at Durant High School.
Ross, who led the McAdams High School Lady Bulldogs to the MHSAA Class 1A State Championshp this past season, signed the deal with Durant on Friday.
"I was looking to be here for a while," Ross said of his two-year stay at McAdams. "I wasn't planning on it being a quick stop.
"The administration and I didn't see eye-to-eye on the direction of the athletic program," he said. "That was the biggest reason for the change."
"I'm a fan of basketball and I love basketball, but I also believe in academics," MHS principal Katie Jamison said. "Everywhere I go people tell me this is a basketball school. I know everybody loves basketball, but academics come first."
Ross said coaching both the boys and girls programs at Durant was a plus in his accepting the job.
"I've really begun to enjoy coaching the girls as well," he said. "I look forward to helping build that program."
Durant Athletic Director Ashley Kuhn said he was excited about being able to hire someone of the quality of Ross.
"We are pleased," Kuhn said on Monday morning. "We had a lot of good applicants and a lot of good response. This is a guy we felt like was a really good fit for us."
Ross coached at Williams-Sullivan, located just outside the Durant city limits, for seven seasons before taking the job at McAdams. Ross said the move also puts him closer to his home in Lexington.
Kuhn estimated that there were 15 applicants for the Durant job and that there were 10 interviews conducted.
The hiring has already been approved by the Durant school board.
Both the Durant boys and the McAdams girls reached the MHSAA Class 1A State Basketball Tournament in Jackson last year.
Jamison said both an in-house and out-of-house search would likely be conducted for new coaches at McAdams.
