Windham High School Athletic Director Dougle Hankins is the first to acknowledge that he has a taken on a lot more responsibility since becoming the new A.D. a year ago. And now he is returning to the sidelines, having assumed the role of the new Bomber girls’ basketball coach.
“It is something that I have been interested in for a long time,” Hankins said. “I have been coaching junior high basketball, boys and girls, for the last 20 years. I have a good rapport with the students in the hallway, and I think this is just another opportunity to build rapport with kids, so I am looking forward to it.”
Hankins will succeed Coach Jim Collins, who stepped down as the Windham girls’ basketball coach after serving in the role for eight years. Although it will be the first varsity girls’ basketball head coaching stint for Hankins, he is well-acquainted with the program, having served as the junior varsity head coach for the last four years prior to replacing Daniel Gross as the new A.D.
When Hankins assumed the role of A.D., he relinquished his duties as the junior varsity girls’ basketball coach but said that he did miss the day-to-day inner workings of the Windham girls’ basketball program.
When Collins resigned, Hankins said that Windham conducted a thorough search to find his successor. He said that the Windham Athletic Department received several applications from qualified candidates but cited that experience was also a key factor.
According to the 1994 Windham graduate, he had previously been interested in the girls’ basketball head coaching job eight years ago before Collins took the position but elected not to apply for it due to personal obligations.
Most of the interested applicants were first-year teachers, and Hankins said that he had interest himself. After consulting with the administration, it was agreed that Hankins could fill the vacant role and still maintain his duties as the A.D. Eight years after passing on an opportunity to coach the Bomber girls, Hankins decided the timing was right this time and seized his second chance to coach girls’ basketball.
Although he is a new face at the helm, Hankins said that he is confident his familiarity with most of the Bomber girls will help the team in enjoying a quick start.
“I don’t expect us to miss a beat as far as having the knowledge of who their coaches are,” he said. “We need to get our numbers up to where we can have a legit junior varsity team, I would like for us to be able to dress 15 girls every night, but we will just have to wait and see how our numbers look.”
Hankins said that one of his biggest priorities as the new girls’ basketball coach will be to reignite the Windham youth program, as youth numbers have been declining for the last several years.
“We need to have five or six girls in third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade and sixth grade to try to build those numbers up and to foster interest in basketball,” he added. “Basketball is not a sport that you come out in your sophomore year, and you are good at it. It is a sport that you start playing when you are seven, eight or nine years old and you just continually grow and get better with it so hopefully we can do that.”
After being appointed as the new A.D., Hankins kept his role as the varsity track & field coach and intervention specialist. By becoming the new girls’ basketball coach, Hankins is stepping down as the track & field coach.
He acknowledged that it is difficult to walk away from track & field, serving as the head coach since the program was revived in 2014 but added that it is for the best, as taking on the roles of both girls’ basketball and track & field coach would be too overwhelming.
“It is something that I still have an interest in and as the A.D. I am still going to be involved in track because even though I am not coaching in the day-to-day, I am still going to be involved. I am looking forward to hiring some younger teachers that we just hired who have run track in high school. They can still get in the blocks and can hurdle,” he noted.
Hankins said that track & field head coaching position has yet to be filled, as the job vacancy has not been officially posted.
With close to 20 years of head coaching experience at the junior high and junior varsity level, Hankins is prepared to give this challenge a shot in his first time as the new head girls’ varsity coach.
