Brian Higgins resigns as McDonald basketball coach

Staff report

At Tuesday’s school board meeting, Brian Higgins announced his resignation as McDonald’s boys basketball coach.

Higgins served as an assistant to long-time head coach Jeff Rasile for 12 years before inheriting the team for the 2011-12 season. It was his first head coaching job.

“As far as X’s and O’s, I was pretty familiar with what was expected as a head coach,” Higgins said. “There are some differences taking on a more major role, such as managing a staff and putting more time into it.”

He admitted he never really had any real desire to be a head coach, but took the position last year to “continue the success of the program under Mr. Rasile.”

The Blue Devils went 13-9, falling to Windham in the Division IV district semifinals.

“It was a lot of fun being around the kids and having a pretty successful season,” Higgins said.

The search for the next coach will begin in the next few weeks, starting internally. Higgins would like to remain a coach for the foreseeable future, hopefully remaining at McDonald.

The Blue Devils lose just one senior, Austin Bucan, with four juniors — Stephen Politano, Patrick Kunkel, Tyler Smith and Christian Rusinowski — likely coming back.