New Boss for Drury Girls as Winter Season Gets Under Way

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. -- Brian Flagg is living the dream.

 

The first-year Drury High School girls basketball coach welcomed nearly 30 players to Monday's tryouts on the first day of MIAA winter sports practice.

 

There was nowhere else he'd rather have been.

 

"I've wanted this job," Flagg said. "I've not made it a secret. This is the job I've wanted for 15 years. I've applied for it twice before, and finally this time I got it."

 

Flagg was one of a handful of Berkshire County coaches getting their first look at their players on Monday.

 

On the girls side, John Jacobbe (Mount Greylock), Pete Ellsworth (St. Joseph) and Mike Nykorchuck (Lenox) each moves into the hot seat.

 

There is less turnover on the boys sideline, but Joe Bennett takes over at St. Joe, and Luis Carmona goes from JV to varsity to fill the chair vacated by Nykorchuck.

 

None of those jobs interested Flagg, a former assistant under Bob Thistle in the boys program at Mount Greylock.

 

"I got into high school coaching because I wanted this job," he said.

 

And he got into high school coaching at a time when Drury was a force to be reckoned with -- at the dawn of a run of six league championships in 11 years.

 

Flagg is out to prove the last two seasons -- 10-12 in 2013-14 and 5-15 last winter -- are aberrations for a proud program.

 

"Drury has always been feared," he said. "My daughter won a Western Mass championship here in 2001. Their defense was daunting. People were afraid of them. Not to say the last couple of years the teams haven't been good, but there was a shift away from that. That's what we hope to bring back.

 

"With this group of kids and getting them to buy in and the excitement that is here, I think that's going to make a difference."

 

And he aims to build for the long-term even as the Blue Devils prep for their Dec. 14 season-opener at South Hadley.

 

"We're going to really work a lot more with the youth group," Flagg said. "I've been on that board of directors for 20 years with the youth group in North Adams. The three women who are my assistants all came through that program. [Two of them] played for me. Now they're coaching with me.

 

"We are going to have three games where the youth kids come up and play at half-time. My girls went and helped out with the placement clinic for the youth league. And we're going to allow the kids to come to any game they want to, if they have their jersey on, and come for free. We'll let them go in the locker room.

 

"We've got to get them excited down there. The Hoosacs and Wahconahs and the Monuments of the world, they've been successful because that's exactly what they do."

 

Flagg knows it was not that long ago that Drury was in that upper echelon of Berkshire County basketball. Standing in the shadow of a banner that celebrates the program's past, he said he hopes this year's crop of Blue Devils can get Drury back where it wants to be.

 

"It's going to be fun because it's a great group of kids," he said. "They've played together for a long time. And they're really excited about the game. As a coach, that's really what you want."