BOYS BASKETBALL: George takes over reins at Northern Lebanon
No matter how one feels about the reasons, it is undeniably true that the Northern Lebanon boys basketball program has been plagued by turmoil, hard feelings and great uncertainty in recent months.
It is equally true that at some point the program and the school must move forward and put the ugly recent past, low-lighted by the ouster of popular head coach Gary Bouchette in February, behind it.
Tuesday night, the first step in that process took place when the Northern Lebanon school board voted 9-0 to approve the hiring of Lebanon County native Chris George as the Vikings' new head coach.
A Lebanon Catholic alum and former Elco boys basketball and football assistant, George returns to his boys hoops and county roots on the heels of a highly successful five-year stint as the Pine Grove girls' basketball coach.
In his time with the Lady Cardinals, George went a sizzling 89-39 that included two District 11 Class AA titles and one Schuylkill League championship.
And ironically, it was a job George says he entered into under circumstances similar to what he inherits at Northern Lebanon.
"When I took the Pine Grove job it wasn't that much different," said George, who succeeded Pam Ryan at Pine Grove. "Most jobs that open up aren't perfect jobs. There's always a little baggage, or some challenge. If it was a great job and there were no issues, it wouldn't be open."
That said, George is anxious to leave his own mark on the program while building on some of Bouchette's accomplishments. In fact, George and Bouchette have been in contact on a few occasions, leaving Northern Lebanon's new head coach with nothing but good things to say about his predecessor.
"I'm really excited," George said. "Gary's done a great job the last few years and I know he's worked r hard. I really respect him. We had some good battles with him (when George was at Elco) and we always really respected him.
"I think it's gonna be his program still, for a while. But I guess I'll try to put my stamp on it a little bit, and maybe we can try to take things to the next level over the next three to five years, if possible."
George, who will continue to teach at Pine Grove, did admit it was a difficult decision to leave his old post for Northern Lebanon.
"The last couple weeks have been really tough," he said. "The future's really bright there, and it was obviously difficult to leave that."
But the lure of getting back to coaching boys basketball in his home county was too much to ignore.
"I always kinda knew I was going to try to get back to the boys' side," George said. "This is where my roots are. It's nice to be back in Lebanon County and it's nice to be back on the boys' side. It'll take a little getting used to, but basketball's basketball. I'm hoping I can get the learning curve back up quick."
Though familiar with Lancaster-Lebanon Section Three from his time at Elco, George admits he doesn't know a whole lot about the team he's inheriting. But he's anxious to start finding about the Vikings, who went 7-15 in Bouchette's final season.
"We're just trying to be competitive every night," George said. "I'm not 100 percent sure about what I have, that's gonna take some time. I wish I could give you an outlook on how the season's gonna go varsity-wise. Some of that's gonna take some time, getting to know the kids and what they can do."