DURANT — The Durant School Board approved the hiring of Philip Bailey for the position of varsity boys’ head basketball coach at Durant High School Thursday afternoon.

Bailey, 56, of Mesquite, Texas, is currently the head basketball coach at Poteet High School. Bailey has been a head basketball coach for 34 years.

“For this late in the game, so to speak, for hiring, we definitely feel like we’ve got a steal on the deal. We definitely look forward to great things about him,” said Drew Young, Durant Director of Athletics.

Since his time at Poteet, Bailey has won three Bi-District Championships and an Area championship. Early in his career, Bailey won a pair of state titles with St. Mark’s in the Southwest Preparatory Conference. He went on to Cedar Hill, where he received Coach of the Year honors before a stop in South Grand Prairie and on to Poteet.

He comes to Durant in the midst of a rebuilding cycle. Playing without a returning starter, the Lions finished 4-19 last season. All five starters will return this next season.

“John Williamson, who had coached against him at Sherman High sShool, told him that it was going to be a great challenge for him,” said Young. “That’s one of the things that he seems to like to do is rebuild programs.”

Williamson is currently the assistant principal at Durant Middle School.

“One of my closest, best friends is an assistant principal there, John Williamson. He called me last week and said the basketball job is open at Durant High School and asked me if I’d come up and look at it,” said Bailey. “I’ve coached 34 years at Texas, and been at the same school I’m at right now for 21 years. I needed a change of venue. It will be a shot in the arm for me. New challenges, new venue, new environment and a great new experience.”

Young made it clear that the interviewing process was as much about selling Bailey on Durant as the other way around.

“Our main thing was, we just wanted him to fully understand that we’re in a cycle right now in Durant High School that we’ve had some down times,” said Young. “Every school system goes through that. I’ve been in four school systems, and it doesn’t matter, athletes cycle in and cycle out.You just hope that you can continue a moderate amount of success when you have those times, and keep your consistency and continuity in your program as best you can. He seems to be a guy that’s been able to adjust to the personnel he’s had.”

The opening became available in late June with the departure of J. Scott Lowrance, who moved to take a high school principal job at Byng. Bailey is the fourth head boys’ basketball coach since 2005.

“They were very open and honest with me, about the status of the program right now,” said Bailey. “It’s apparently in a rebuilding phase. That’s pretty much what I do. If I have strength or a forte, I’m a builder. I’ve never walked into a new program that was ready to win a state championship.The program where I’m at right now is a cycle program. I’m always constantly rebuilding. It’s always a process. It takes a lot of commitment.

“My style of play is solely based on talent. I’ve had teams here at Poteet that averaged 89 points per game. Last year, we averaged 58 points per game. A basketball team’s offensive structure is based on how talented the players are. That’ll be an evaluation process. I like playing up-tempo, but that will be determined by the players. Defensively, I can do a combination of anything. Again, that’s based on talent.”