Haden Boyd hired as W.A. girls basketball coach

By Paul Keane

The Wayne County News

With a background centered around junior college basketball, Haden Boyd

now takes over his first head coaching job by taking the helm of the

Wayne Academy girls basketball team.

The announcement was made on Friday by Head of School Susie Kelley.

Boyd spent three of the last four years on the staff of Missy Bilderback

at Jones College. Before that, he played at East Central Community

College and played his high school basketball at Stringer.

"I learned a lot at Jones," he said. "We had a lot of success because we

had good athletes who bought into the system.

"I've learned from each coach that I've worked with. They have all help

prepare me for this and they have taught me how to build successful

programs."

With plenty of young players --- only two seniors graduated this year

and the junior high program features more than 25 players --- Boyd said

he plans on working from the bottom up to build a long-term successful

program.

"There are great numbers here already in the program," he said. "We're

going to pour fundamentals into all of our players and especially with

our seventh and eighth graders.

"We're going to work on skills development throughout the program. I

want to build something that will be sustained for the long term."

Boyd said he hangs his hat on being strong defensively.

"I'm more of a defensive coach," he said. "I like to see players who

will play some hard-nosed defense.

"I've heard the girls here are scrappy and tough --- and they've had

success in track and softball --- so I think they will enjoy what we're

going to instill here."

Boyd said his will begin summer workouts the second week of June and

"start building toward the season."