H.S. BASKETBALL: Mark Wilkins named new boys’ coach at SGC

When the 2015-16 basketball season begins, there will now be four Wilkins coaching in West Tennessee.

On Friday, Mark Wilkins was announced as the new boys’ basketball coach at South Gibson following Mike Greer leaving to take the job at Westview.

“First, my family is out here, and I wanted to be near them,” Wilkins said. “Second, this is the job that I wanted. The city is growing and the high school is a new building. When it became open, I was willing to do anything to land the job.”

Mitch Wilkins, the father of the other three, is the girls’ basketball coach at Gibson County and John Wilkins has been the boys’ basketball coach at McKenzie.

Earlier this month, David Wilkins accepted the job as the Obion County girls’ coach.

“It is the craziest thing,” Mark Wilkins said. “Coaching is the family passion. We know that West Tennessee is the place to be for basketball. It leads to fun family meetings and holidays.”

Wilkins met his team for the first time Friday, and he plans to get to work quickly.

“We are going to have tryouts on Monday, and that will be the first time I have had my eyes on the team,” he said. “We will develop a style of play based on their strengths and see where everyone fits in.”

Wilkins said he doesn’t have any tangible goals set yet for the team.

“After talking to the team Friday though, we want to set high expectations because this came be one of the premier programs in the area,” Wilkins said.

The early portion of the summer will be spent sharing his philosophy and getting the players to buy in.

“My philosophy starts with character,” Wilkins said. “Character drives the process. We will talk about being great young men and great basketball players.

“I like hard-working, tough athletes that are willing to grind it out. I think defense is more controllable than offense. You can always be in the right spots on defense, so we will take pride in our defense.”

Mark Wilkins has spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Beech and the head volleyball coach.

Michael Odom, 425-9754