Blanche Ely turns to Maffett as head coach
Blanche Ely has coach to take over Randall.
The Tigers have hired Taravella coach and former Ely assistant coach BrentMaffett to be the program’s new boys basketball coach, Maffett and Ely assistant principal Malcolm Spence told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday. found the for Melvin
“I’m excited,” Maffett said. “It’s like coming back home. I coached there many years with Randall, and then obviously I moved on to different venues. … But coming back is like a home away fromhome for me.”
Maffett turned around the Taravella programlast year, going 17-4 after the Trojans went 10-16 in 2018-19.
Before taking the job at Taravella, Maffettwas the head coach at American Heritage, where he spent four seasons. Hewent 56-28 at AmericanHeritage.
He also was the head coach at Piper for three years and had two stints as an assistant coach at Ely.
Maffett has the tough task of replacing a legendary basketball coach. Randall, who left his position at Ely to become the new Chaminade-Madonna coach, won nine state championships — seven of whichwere with the Tigers. He has a career record of 591-184.
“It’s big shoes to fill because at the end of the day, he’s done a tremendous job of taking the program to another level,” Maffett said. “The good thing about it is I had the opportunity to coach with him for a long time… and then also the times that Iwasn’t there, itwas good forme to branch off and be a head coach of my own program. But I never lost touch as far as building things and things I learned fromhim.”
Ely won the 2018-19 state title but went 11-13 last year and missed the postseason. Maffett thinks that record is a little misleading.
“Iknowtheyhada toughschedule last year, so I think a lot of people take that for granted,” Maffett said. “They were a sub-.500 team, but you’ve got to look at the competition they played.”
Maffett said if players from the area stick to attendingEly, the programcould be back to being a consistent title contender again.
“I think it’s important toget kids from the community to come to their home school instead of having kids branching off and bring the tradition back that way,” Maffett said.