Chris Chiozza hired as St. Benedict boys basketball coach

The St. Benedict boys basketball team will have a new coach walking the sidelines next season.

Chris Chiozza was hired as the new Eagles coach Friday morning, head of school Sondra Morris, announced in a news release. His son, also named Chris, was a basketball star at White Station High School and Florida before playing in the NBA.

"I just felt like it was a good time and a good opportunity to try to move up a little bit," Chiozza told The Commercial Appeal.

Chiozza was the middle school boys basketball coach at Elmore Park for four seasons before taking the job at St. Benedict.

He led one of the most dominant middle school programs in the state, leading Elmore Park to back-to-back state championships, including one this past season. Elmore Park extended its win streak to 65 games this past season after its title win and had over 100 wins under Chiozza, including two undefeated seasons. They also had one of the top middle school players in the area, Braylin Williams.

"Anytime you have a lot of success and things get hot for you, you get opportunities to come available," Chiozza said. "You never know if you don't make a move when those things are kind of hot."

Before coaching at Elmore Park, Chiozza coached the 16 and 17U Team Thad teams for four years.

This past season, St. Benedict finished 6-16 and winless in region play, finishing last in Division II-AA West region. The Eagles haven't had a winning season since 2017-18 and went 13-13 in the 2019-20 season, per Maxpreps.

"I feel like I'm a pretty good skills trainer. I think can make players better if they're willing to put the work in and just buy in," Chiozza said. "I feel like it's just a good opportunity as a whole to be a pretty strong program."

Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @wynstonw__.