Sports: Kohn named girls’ basketball coach at New London High School
Former Parish Hill coach replaces Misto, who retired after last season
He's been watching film on the New London High School girls' basketball team ever since he applied to be the Whalers' next head coach.
“I fell in love with watching tape,” Kohn said this week. “Defense has always been a big priority to me. I think we can put five pit bulls on the court.”
Kohn, formerly the head coach at Class S school Parish Hill, the smallest classification in Connecticut, heads for Class LL, the largest, as he takes over the program at New London. Kohn steps in for another noted proponent of defense first in Holly Misto, who retired after last season.
New London was 25-3 last year and reached the Class LL championship game for the third time in five seasons under Misto, falling to Norwalk 55-53 before 5,089 fans at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Whalers were ranked second in the final GameTimeCT Top 10 Poll.
The Whalers return starting guards Joniyah Bland-Fitzpatrick and Jayden Burns, but graduated a formidable frontcourt trio in Tai Pagan — The Day's All-Area Girls' Basketball Player of the Year, now competing for Division II Post University — Xaryia Melendez and Spencer Roman.
“Who wouldn't be?” Kohn said, asked if he's excited about the challenge of continuing New London's run of success. “Absolutely. I love it. That's what attracted me to New London … the challenging schedule, it's one of the toughest in the state. It's especially challenging to have lost three superstars that were a big part of the program.
“… We'll be a fast but small team. Our goal is to compete with everybody and anybody the best we can. If we come up short, we'll go down swinging.”
The Whalers, who have won six straight Eastern Connecticut Conference divisional titles and three straight league tournament titles, open the season on Dec. 17 at East Haven, which finished 10th in last year's final poll.
Kohn coached one season at Parish Hill in 2017-18, with the Pirates finishing with a school-record 21 victories, winning the Capital Region Athletic League and earning the top seed in Class S. Parish Hill has the lowest enrollment, 137, of any Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference-based school that is not a cooperative program.
“It was an amazing, amazing year,” Kohn said of his time at Parish Hill.
Kohn, originally a New York City native, grew up in New Rochelle, N.Y., and was recruited to swim and play water polo at UConn, thus bringing him to Connecticut.
A resident of Columbia, Kohn has coached basketball at the age group level in Austria and AAU level in the United States. He was an assistant coach at Coventry High School and Eastern Connecticut State University, following the path of his son Jamie, a 1,000-point scorer at Eastern who went on to a pro career in England and Austria.
Kohn has met with the New London players twice, he said, and wishes he had more time to prepare for the upcoming season.
“I've been coaching 21 years now; I know what it's all about,” Kohn said. “But you need to prepare individually and get to know them, blend it to the players. … (It's coming up) too quick.”