Parkers Chapel new head boys basketball coach eager to start.

EL DORADO - Having played high school basketball at Bearden, Josh Langley has first-hand experience of what Parkers Chapel basketball is about.

Now he is getting the opportunity to place his own stamp on the program.

Langley was recently hired to take over the reins of the boys basketball program after Trey Lynch departed to become Conway Christian’s boys basketball coach.

“It’s a great school, and they had a lot of success last year,” Langley said. “I played Parkers Chapel in high school when I was at Bearden, and they’re always really tough in basketball. I’m a basketball guy, so I was looking for a place where basketball is something that’s important to the community and the kids.”

Langley, who was the ninthgrade boys coach at Camden Fairview, wanted his next job to be at a small school.

“I have a two-year-old that I’ll be putting through school in a couple of years,” Langley said. “I was looking for a place where I can raise him in a good, small town that makes you feel at home. I come from a small school. My wife comes from a small school, so we were really looking for that, so it fit all of our needs.”

Langley began his coaching career in Atlanta, Texas, before coming to Camden Fairview when Mike Cox arrived to

become the school’s head football coach.

In his three years with the Cardinals, Langley also aided boys varsity head coach Derek Harrell, and Langley said his tutelage will serve him well with the Trojans.

“I was there for three years, so I got to follow some of the seniors as they went through high school, so I think that experience of growing with those guys will help,” Langley said. “Coach (Derek) Harrell is an outstanding coach. He’s very knowledgeable, so I learned a ton from him. Being able to run my own program in the ninth grade, he gave me a lot of leeway and freedom to run what I wanted to run as long as it kind of fit. That was a big plus.”

Langley said he hasn’t met formally with the team, but added that defense will be a key focal point early on.

“I’m really big on defense. I like to get after people, force turnovers, get deflections and keep people out of the paint, so defense will be our primary focus,” Langley said. “We want to turn defense into offense. We’re going to try and get into people defensively and disrupt what they want to do offensively.”

Offensively, Langley likes to get up and down the floor.

“We want to push the ball. If I don’t have to set up on offense, that would be ideal,” Langley said. “We want to push the ball and get layups, score off our defense, long rebounds or if we don’t get those easy layups, we’ll kick it out for threes, which would be good looks for us.”

This is the first varsity head coaching job for Langley, who is eager to get started and see his team up close.

“A lot of it is just getting out and seeing where they are,” Langley said. “Then we can see what they need to be working on. That’s going to be big. Then we’ll get into putting in the stuff that I want to do offensively and defensively.”