The Millennium High School basketball team is going through a transition period where they recently had a change in coaching staff. Coach Rob Gertzman and assistant coach Stefan Jean-Jacques left the team over the summer, and hired in their place was coach Shawnelle Scott.

A biography on ESPN gives background information on coach Scott, who played four years on the St. John’s basketball team before being selected 43rd overall by the Portland Trailblazers in the 1994 NBA draft. He later played for other NBA teams, as well as overseas, and hopes to spread his knowledge of the game to the students at MBHS.

The change in coaching staff was a result of the seniors graduating in the spring of 2015. The school’s athletic program had decided this was the best time to start fresh and develop the younger players on the roster.

The head of athletics department, and also baseball coach, Brian Friedman, expressed his expectations for the team. He said, “A lot of our players are sophomores and juniors but, with the revamped coaching and training, we hope to be an intimidating team every time we step out on the court.

A change in coaching is very uncommon at the high school level. However it is becoming increasingly popular with professional teams especially within the NBA. Since the summer of 2014, there have been 14 head coaching changes and last season the league even saw its first woman coach. In a podcast recorded by the Oklahoman, Oklahoma City Thunder general manager, Sam Presti, says he is not surprised by the trend and expects it to continue. “Most organizations want stability, however, when a team feels they have reached their potential people feel it’s time for a change.” In an article written by ESPN, former NBA commissioner David Stern had similar responses to what Presti had said. “At the end of the day the NBA is a business and people want progression within their teams but when there is no improvement it’s best to take a step back and evaluate what’s best for the organization.”

Fortunately that has not been the case with Millennium. Since the 12-13 season record which saw the team go 2-14, each year they have steadily gotten better going 12-4 and 11-3 the next two years. Coach Scott remains optimistic about the progression of his team. “We lost some key players from last year but at the same time added some very talented players so I expect to build off the success we had last year.”

Although the players and coaches have changed, the goal remains the same, which is to advance deep into the playoffs, and hopefully win the 2015-2016 boys PSAL title.