A new head of the guard is at the helm for the Providence Classical Academy Knights. Trey Pittman has taken the boys’ basketball head coach position for the Knights. Pittman is returning to the sidelines since 2006. The cards had to fall right for Pittman to come back. “The PCA administration made it a perfect situation and went out of their way to make it right,” Pittman said. “Coach Duhon was pretty persistent and a friend of mine. He’s a good coach and I feel comfortable with him there. It’s pretty close to the house. Also, just wanted to see if I could still do it or not.”
It may have been a while since Pittman has been on the sidelines but he has the experience to bring to PCA. Pittman was the girls head coach at Riverdale Academy from 2001-2004 and the girls head coach at Minden in LHSAA from 2004-2006. He led the Minden Lady Tiders to back to back district runner-ups and playoffs in both seasons. They advanced to the second round during his tenure. This will be his first foray as a boys head basketball coach at the high school level. He does claim a 2-0 record when he had to fill in for each school boy’s team. “So this will be the first time with boys and we’ll see,” Pittman said. “The girls play so hard for you and listen to you and they want structure and pretty organized. It’s going to be interesting if the boys take to it like the girl’s team.”
PCA’s new head coach will also be bringing a different perspective into his position as he’s known as a referee around the area for both the MAIS and LHSAA game. Pittman is currently the assignment secretary for the MAIS. He will have to relinquish that duty to coach. “I guess I flip-flopped again,” Pittman said. “I was a referee when I got out of college and then became a coach. I got out of coaching and became a referee and now I’m back coaching. I’ll treat them all with respect. They know they’re not going to catch too much of a hard time with me. I’ll mess with them a little bit, but they’re working hard and I know as a referee I appreciated it when the coach was coaching and leave the referees alone.”
Pittman will be inheriting a team the will be returning a good many of the squad from last year. At interview time, Pittman had not met his new team yet, but he’s already heard that the incoming junior class will be the bigger class.
PCA is also facing a changing environment in the MAIS. Fellow district teams Glenbrook and River Oaks will be opting to move to the LHSAA in an upcoming couple of years.
With the new leader, Pittman is looking to make the Knight stronger in some areas with some tweaks, but most of all develop a relationship with his team. “I’m going to try do some things the same and update some things,” Pittman said. “I’m sure in the last 14 years people are running some different stuff. We’re going to play good defense, We’re going to play that a lot. We’ll shoot a lot of layups and 3-pointers. We’ll steal a lot of points on inbound plays. We’ll let the boys run and let them go a little more and let them do their thing. We’ll do some scouting report. It will be fun and hopefully in 20 years when they see me, they’ll all like me and talk to me. The girls I had at Riverdale and Minden, they are grown with families and we still talk and appreciate me.”
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