Heritage sticks with Neal Leatherwood as boys basketball coach

After looking around to try and fill its boys basketball coaching vacancy, Heritage High School opted to stay put.

The Mountaineers announced that they hired Neal Leatherwood, who filled in as an interim coach over the final 18 games of the season after then-head coach Bill Duncan was suspended because of a pending investigation.

“We interviewed a lot of guys, and at the end of the day we felt that Neal was our guy,” Heritage athletic director Robbie Bennett said. “I like his work ethic and we felt he did a good job filling in as an interim coach. He loves this school — he graduated here in 2004 — and we think he’ll do a good job. He deserves a shot at it.”

Leatherwood acted as an assistant coach for five seasons before taking the helm following Duncan’s suspension and subsequent retirement. The Mountaineers went 7-11 under Leatherwood to cap a 16-15 season.

“He knew when he took the job that he was on a half-season tryout,” Bennett said. “That was his interview right there. We got to see him in action and we thought he did a pretty good job.”