Anderson hired as Wash High boys basketball coach
Travis Anderson first saw the Wash High boys basketball team at a summer league game last year.
He was an assistant coach at Community College of Beaver County at the time, but the Prexies made an impression on him.
“I watched them warm up and thought they were a big, athletic team,” Anderson said. “I thought if I had a team similar to that I could probably work with them and potentially make them better, from a coaching perspective.”
Now he will get his chance.
Anderson was hired by the Washington School Board on Monday night as the Prexies’ new boys basketball coach.
“When I heard about the job being open, I definitely knew I wanted to apply for it,” Anderson said. “I didn’t know if I would get the job, but it never hurts to put your name in the hat. I got an interview, and I thought it went well and I guess the people that interviewed me thought it did as well. I’m excited for it.”
Anderson takes over for Ryan Bunting, who had a record of 21-22 and one playoff appearance in two seasons with Prexies.
Though this will be Anderson’s first varsity head coaching job, he brings plenty of experience. He’s coached basketball for 10 years at various levels, including on the AAU circuits.
Anderson is a 2008 Ambridge graduate. He spent a year playing football at Arkansas-Pine Bluff before transferring to Seton Hill to play basketball and ultimately finished at Penn State Beaver, where he played basketball and earned a degree in Criminal Justice.
It was at Penn State Beaver where he got his first introduction to coaching, which was with the Aliquippa junior varsity program.
“I had a friend who was coaching at Aliquippa and I told him I was interested in coaching,” Anderson said. “He told me I could come coach with him and get some experience and see if I like it. Honestly, I’ve hit the ground running since then.”
He went on to be an assistant at Penn State Beaver for a year before he started coaching AAU with College Basketball Prospects of America.
He coached AAU this spring. He’s unsure if he’ll continue to coach AAU now that he’s coaching varsity basketball.
Anderson said he’s had a chance to meet the players and one of the biggest things he’s stressed to them is accountability.
“The first thing I’m trying to instill in these young men is that when it comes to basketball and anything that has to do with school, it’s school first,” Anderson said. “I’m adamant about that. I’m going to try to ensure we’re doing things correctly in the classroom before we step on the floor, because if we can’t do well in the classroom we’re not going to be able to do well in the court.
“Right now, we’re working on basketball skill development, but also working on becoming the best versions of ourselves. It’s been fun so far. The kids are listening and are ready to come to work.”
As far as style of play is concerned, Anderson likes his teams to be up-tempo, press and try to score easy buckets in transition as much as possible.
He sees the players at Washington to be a good fit for that scheme.
“When I look at this team, we’re fast, athletic, have some size and some guards, so we’re going to press, but play some halfcourt man-to-man too,” Anderson said. “Maybe even sprinkle in some zone looks too, but for the most part we want to play fast and speed the game up. I think we can play in the halfcourt on offense, but I’d prefer easy buckets in transition.”