Caldwell’s Heather Saliba, left, chats with Parkersburg’s Amy Way prior to Friday’s Battle Against Cystic Fibrosis at Rod Oldham Athletic Center. Saliba was the head coach for the Ohio girls while Way was an assistant for the West Virginia girls (Photo by Kerry Patrick)

PARKERSBURG — A year after joining the girl’s basketball program at Parkersburg High School as an assistant coach for Chris Murray, 1997 Big Red graduate Amy Way has moved up to the head chair.

Twice as a player she won Class AAA state titles, finished runner-up once and now takes over a program that suffered heavy graduation losses after capturing the quad-A crown.

“I really enjoyed my time at Warren and when I gave that position up I didn’t think I’d ever really get back into being a head coach,” admitted Way, who after PHS continued her career for the Fighting Scots at Ohio Valley University and earned her teaching degree in 2002. “Last year, getting back into it I got the bug back. Really enjoyed it.

“I knew Chris was going to be resigning at the end of the year. I thought about it all year long, kind of like went back and forth, but ultimately, yeah, this is my alma mater. I loved working with the kids. We have a great group of kids. It all just kind of like fell into place and felt like the perfect time to come back.”

Way, who has taught physical education at Hamilton Middle School for the last decade, spent the past three years as the head coach for the Wildcats.

“That was good after having varsity and having all the time commitment,” Way admitted.

“It was nice to be able to coach, but not with all the time consuming things.”

The new Big Red boss had a players and parents meeting on Wednesday.

“The ultimate goal will always be state championships,” stressed Way. “I think we have nine of them in this program now. That’s always the expectation, but we also don’t want to lose sight of all of the things that get you to winning championships and all the lessons that you learn and the fun that you have, and just all the things that make high school sports great. We don’t want to lose sight of just wins and losses, but absolutely your ultimate goal is always going to be getting a championship.

“We still have some great kids coming back. Sometimes, yeah, they got overshadowed sometimes a little bit by all of our phenomenal seniors that we had last year, but we still have two starters that are coming back in Frances (Guice) and Faithlyn (Butcher), and then you can’t forget about Amaya Lewis hitting the biggest shot in the state tournament for us by a phenomenal pass by Lauren. There are kids that have got some minutes and got some minutes in the most important times.”

The Big Reds plan to do some shootouts and compete in summer league games.

Skill work and conditioning will be stressed heavily during the flex days.

“Just getting the kids, some of the younger ones, to get in here and get used to how I like to have things done,” said the coach. “Just kind of getting to know each other and just get on the same page is really the idea for this summer so we’re a little bit ahead of the game come day one at practice.

“We have some experience, but we have also a lot of kids that haven’t played varsity minutes, so it’s going to be a little bit of an adjustment for them getting just the tempo and the speed of the game.”

While expectations will continue to be high, the overall philosophy will remain relatively the same.

“What you need to kind of expect it to be is kind of the same type of style that we played at Warren,” Way said. “We’re going to get up and down the floor.

“We’re going to play phenomenal defense. We’re going to get after it. It should be an exciting, fun, style of basketball.”

Despite having some key pieces back in the fold, Way knows figuring out how everyone can mesh together best will be critical.

“The biggest thing is just getting them in and just the work ethic and the discipline and playing for each other, and getting the mindsets of how we are going to go about things from the leadership of even our returners down,” added the coach. “Getting that established and just really setting the tempo.

“It’s all going to be defensive driven. Day one that’s what’s going to be harped, fundamentals. A lot of fundamentals and a lot of defense. Then the fun comes after that once we can play some defense and do things the right way, then we can lighten up a little bit and have some fun and stuff.”

Murray definitely had fun during his tenure leading the red and white.

Also a fellow Fighting Scot, the ex-Big Red head man thinks the program is in good hands.

“I’m thankful for the players, our coaches and the program,” Murray said. “It was never about me.

“It was always our goal to make the players better and the program better. Amy is a great friend and basketball coach. She is the perfect fit for the job.”

Way and the Big Reds still have roughly six months until the regular season gets underway.

“I’m very excited,” she said. “I have big expectations for this group. It’s just a good group of kids.

“They’re just a good group of kids coming back and they’re a joy to work with. I’m just excited to get started.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com