DUXBURY – The Varsity Boys Basketball team at Harwood Union will undergo a major change this year with a new coach, local parent Jay Bellows, who has been chosen for the position. 

“[We] chose Bellows because of his experience with the game of basketball and his experience coaching,” said Chris Langevin. Langevin is the Athletic Director at Harwood and was part of the hiring committee along with the girls varsity coach Tom Young, a boys basketball parent, and a returning player.  “[Bellows] has a high level of basketball knowledge and displayed that in the interview,” said Langevin.

Bellows has played basketball at the high school and college level. Additionally, he has 25 years coaching at the youth level. He plans to use his experience to bring some change to the program. This change will come in the form of a new system of offense.

“The kids have a tough position because they have to learn an entirely new offense,” Bellows said. The team this year is very young which could be beneficial for this new system. “The younger kids that are coming up have been playing in our system for a long time so the younger kids have a step up on learning what they’re going to be doing” said Bellows. 

With the season rapidly approaching, Bellows is focused on implementing this new system as quickly as he can. “We’re not going to do any [preseason] scrimmages because there’s so much to learn. It’ll be a tough start but I think we’ll mold into the season and get it going,” he said.  Bellows is excited for the upcoming season but also seeing the program grow in the years to come. “We’re gonna be a younger team. Some of the younger kids are really solid too. So probably this and next year we’ll be young but after that, we’ll be a little bit older and more experienced,” he said. 

Bellows is excited to get things underway as the Highlanders will travel to Hartford on December 14th to get their new season underway.