Jason Hill out as Coalfield boys basketball coach

Coalfield boys basketball coach Jason Hill was let go Tuesday after the school decided it wanted to go in a different direction and have a coach that was a faculty member.

Hill and all of his assistants were non-faculty coaches. A leading candidate has been pegged to lead the Yellow Jackets, according to athletic director Shawn Basler, but the school did not want to release that information until it became official.

"It's just easier to keep with the day-to-day operations (when the coach is in-house) both from an administrative standpoint and from a player standpoint because they are able to interact with their coach during the school day," Basler said.

Coalfield has been led by a non-faculty coach for the past 12 years. Hill was hired in 2009 and in his first five years the Yellow Jackets always finished below .500, posting a 30-72 record over that span. In the four years since, however, Coalfield has registered four consecutive winning seasons, including a 17-13 record this season, and the program's fourth district title back in 2013-14 - the first in 23 years. Overall, Hill finishes with a 98-117 record.

"It bothers you a little bit the way they did it," Hill said. "I know they wanted to go in-house, and I understand wanting to have a faculty member as a coach, but the reasoning I was given was not a justifiable reason. I thought me and my staff had been doing a good job. I pretty much turned the program around and then I got pushed out like that."