Basketball: Murray steps down at Brock, expects Rootes as interim coach

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Ken Murray is stepping aside after 20 years and two national championships at his alma mater, Brock University. On Monday, he hinted at his possible replacement, which should come as no surprise. From the St. Catharines Standard:
"An interim coach will be named to take over the men's team by July 1 and a search will be initiated to find a full-time replacement. Murray expects it to be assistant coach Brad Rootes.

"I would be shocked if he's not. I'm surprised they didn't put anything in the press release."
This part of the article might have seemed odd:
"(Athletic director Lorne) Adams declined to say whether (assistant coach Brad) Rootes would be named interim coach.

" 'I can't say,' he said, followed by some laughter."
Set your imaginations to speculate. It escalated quickly when the topic of a change at Brock was raised a couple weeks ago, and hopefully we keep it reined in this time.

We don't know what prompted the change. It's better to focus on what comes next, anyways.

Rootes has been a CIS assistant coach for two seasons, along with coaching Ontario provincial teams, since wrapping up a decorated playing career with that '08 national title. The former point guard has also applied at Ottawa.

A head coach who on the cool side of the big three-oh is not unheard-of in CIS. Barnaby Craddock was about the same as Rootes when he coached at Brandon. Hockey has coaches such as Queen's Brett Gibson, RMC's Adam Shell and Lakehead's Joel Scherban who are 30 and younger, plus football has had coordinators who were in their 20s.

Related:
Brock men’s basketball coach retiring after 20 years (Brock News)
sager

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3 comments:

  1. Bob6/08/2010 10:02 am

    Great news! I'm sure he'd want to avoid the unavoidable negative attention had he held on. It was time and now the program can focus on rebuilding. Some report the job at Ottawa U is a real possiblity for Rootes. I think he'll stay at Brock if given the head job, even interim. But it will be interesting to see the names of those throwing their hat into the Brock ring now. Mac was a plum job and Brock isn't as big and hasn't the money behind it but it is still in a great location and may attract the interest of many.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LeadingEdgeBoomer6/08/2010 10:59 am

    31 year old Marty Johnston has signed a 4 year contract to caoch men's hockey at Carleton.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown6/14/2010 1:02 pm

    Any announcements yet on the interim coach? I've heard a decision has been made in Ottawa.

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