Mike Vukovcan The Hopewell School District is in the market for a new person to lead their high school boys’ basketball team.
Vikings Sports Now can report that Mark D’Alessandris has resigned after coaching the program for 3 seasons. During his tenure, D’Alessandris compiled a record of 20-47, including a record of 9-12 this past season.
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To be fair to D’Alessandris, this job isn’t an easy one and the struggles predate his arrival. In fact, over the last 11 seasons, the Hopewell boy’s basketball has a combined record of just 52-202 and haven’t qualified for the playoffs since 2010.
Whomever takes over will be losing 3 important seniors from this past season in Zach Kovell, Zach Gigliotti and Thomas Pipkins.
The question now is can the district attract a candidate that has the ability to bring some life and coaching qualifications to this program. Both of which are badly needed.
The cupboard surely isn’t bare as the team will return Nick Adams, James Armstrong, Tre Cameron, Jack Biega, Brody Rock, Avery Bokor and Jeremy Benninghoff.
The next coach will need to be able to make basketball a priority and not just a sport that’s focused on during basketball season.
Another key will be finding a way to tap into the potential of the junior high and youth programs in order to develop the players that are coming up through the system. An important factor to that will be hiring the right coach that’s able to bring with him a talented coaching staff.
The job opened up this past week so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of candidates will apply.
The Hopewell School District did a nice job with the recent hiring of football coach Matt Mottes. Can they do it again with this basketball opening? Stay tuned.
