Normand resigns as Stephenville boys basketball coach

By BRAD KEITH

TheFlashToday.com NEWS & SPORTS – FREE & LOCAL

STEPHENVILLE (April 22, 2015) — Stephenville boys basketball head coach Jonathan Normand resigned Wednesday.

“I’m going to spend more time with my family and work on my doctorate degree to become a professor someday,” said Normand, who led Stephenville to its first ever regional finals appearance in 2013-14, and reached the playoffs each of the last four seasons.

Stephenville made it to the regional quarterfinals in 2013, falling to Wichita Falls Hirschi before avenging that loss in the same round the following year to reach the regional tournament. There, the Jackets upset Abilene Wylie in an overtime thriller for arguably the biggest win in the history of the program.

“We hate to lose him. He’s been highly successful on the basketball court here recently. He’s someone we’re definitely going to miss,” said Stephenville athletic director Alan Haire. “We were in Coaches Outreach together, spent some time together and he’s a great person. Sometimes a person’s interests change and they want to do something different in their career, and I certainly understand and support him in that.”

Haire will now oversee the hiring of a new head coach for the first time since school trustees named him athletic director on March 6.

“We don’t necessarily have the entire process planned out with him just turning in his resignation today,” Haire said Wednesday evening. “We want to take the time to reflect and find the very best candidate we can for the Yellow Jackets going into next year. We will post it and search see who we find to be the best leader for the program in 2015-16 and moving forward.”