The Mancos High School basketball program has a new leading man.
The hiring of Ed Aiken as the head boys basketball coach at MHS was made official during last month’s school board meeting, athletic director Health Showalter confirmed.
Aiken will fill the void left following the departure of former coach Rodney Cox, who resigned after the 2015-16 season.
Cox had previously served as an assistant to longtime head coach Gary Hill before taking over as head coach for the 2013-14 season. In three seasons at the helm, Cox led the Blue Jays to three regional tournament appearances and compiled a 40-28 record.
“I just don’t have the time to do it like it needs to be done,” Cox explained. “I loved doing it, but we have two businesses and it just takes a lot of time to do it right.”
Aiken, a 2014 graduate from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia with a B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology, recently relocated to Durango and was initially interested in Mancos for a teaching opening in the high school science department.
But after accepting the position to teach biology, chemistry and general science electives, he noticed the coaching vacancy. Showalter spoke with Aiken about the head boys basketball coaching spot, and Aiken accepted.
“Despite my experience, that ended up being sort of an irresistible offer,” said Aiken.
Aiken played four years of varsity basketball in high school, but has not coached.
However, with a young team that lost its four leading scorers from last year’s squad to graduation, Aiken believes that he and the budding Blue Jays can grow together.
“Our team is young enough that it seemed like an appropriate fit for us to build a program together,” he said. “That obviously includes me learning as a coach as much as them learning as players.”
Newly hired assistant coach Ben Lykins will aid Aiken.
Lykins graduated from James Madison High School, an online program, in June, but played varsity basketball at Dolores High School for the past four seasons. Last year, Lykins led the Bears in scoring with 15.8 points per game, and in rebounds per game, with 8.1.
“We’d been sort of feeling around for someone who would be a good match experience-wise to coach with me, and he fit that description so we brought him on,” Aiken said of Lykins. “He works well with the kids and they seem to respect him.”
