The Dickinson High School girls basketball team has found their new head coach for the 2020-21 season, and beyond.
Dickinson Activities Director Guy Fridley announced the hiring of Devan Douglas, a former Dickinson State basketball player and assistant coach at Dickinson High and New England in the past, on Thursday morning.
“Basketball has always been my passion so a head coaching job has always been one of my goals,” she said. “I guess you could say it has always been a dream of mine. I was very eager and I worked with the girls who are seniors now when they were freshmen.”
The native of Buffalo, S.D. a former all-state basketball player in South Dakota has been a social studies teacher at Dickinson High for the last several years and she also coached volleyball for the Midgets last year.
She is excited to work with what she says is a great group of girls as the incoming senior class she helped coach when they were freshmen.
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Off the court, Douglas said she deeply cares and hopes to impact the lives of her players.
"Getting to work with a great group of kids and not only mold them into good basketball players but into leaders in the community and in the school caught my eye,” she said. “I care about this high school and our community a lot. I am excited to bring that sense of Midget pride and Dickinson High School pride."
Douglas is hoping that former coach James Hayden will be a resource for her and the team as they coached together in the past and Hayden is well known for his body of work over the previous four years.
She wants to build upon the foundation he laid and take the program to the next level.
As for Fridley, when he interviewed her, he knew that Douglas was an excellent relationship builder and she would relate well with the girls.
“Her number one strength is her relationship building. She does an outstanding job not only relating to not only teachers, students and administration but everyone,” he said.
While this summer won’t be a “normal” summer with the coronavirus changing a lot of plans, Fridley isn’t worried about that. Douglas will still have a chance to get in the gym some with the girls and watch them workout and try to start putting her stamp on the program in the coming days.
“She has the girl's respect. She will be the first one to get on the girls but she will be the first one to pat them on the back too,” Fridley said. “That is what we are looking for and we want someone to push them so that they’ll get better.. And that is what she brings to the table.”
