They got their guy - and he's a winner.
King Philip has hired former Bishop Connolly coach and standout Matt Coute as the new boys basketball head coach.
Coute has spent the last three seasons at the helm of the Bishop Connolly boys basketball team in Fall River. Coute, a 2002 graduate of of the school, is also the all-time leading scorer in Cougars history with 1,460 points.
"It was a pretty easy sell to me," Coute said of the switch to KP. "I've kind of always had the mentality to play up to the competition. As a player I always played up and as a coach I always wanted to play up and I've always wanted to strive to get to the highest level I could get to. I'm not someone who has aspirations to coach at the college level, I love high school basketball. I love the atmosphere that it brings and the tournament aspect it brings."
Coute led the Cougars to a 67-19 overall record in his three years coaching at Bishop Connolly, including playoffs. He's coming off a 17-0 regular season with the Cougars and his second D4 South Sectional Championship. He led his alma mater to a D4 State Championship win in 2013, beating Lynnfield 65-62. He inherited a program that missed the playoffs and took the Cougars to three straight playoff appearances.
"When it came to coaching aspirations, I always wanted to have a competitive conference," Coute added. "I live off of 495, so what more of a competitive conference than right in my backyard in the Hockomock League. You talk about Mansfield, Franklin, Taunton, Attleboro, the list goes on - every single team, name them all - there is no off night. If you're not prepared, you don't scout properly, you don't practice properly, you're going to lose. You have to respect everyone, you have to respect every coach, you have to respect every player and that's what I'm all about and that's what attracted me."
Coute has been teaching at Taunton's Friedman Middle School for nearly a decade and to his credit, he did rattle off all of the Hockomock teams to compete with, clearly demonstrating his knowledge of the league less than a week after being named coach.
He played four years at Salve Regina University from 2002 to 2006 and finished as the third highest scorer with 1,365 points. He is familiar with a recent addition to the Hockomock - Taunton - as he coached the Tiger's freshman team for four seasons from 2007 until 2011.
He noted that he clicked instantly with Warrior football coach Brian Lee - who was on the interview committee - noting they have similar philosophies and mentality on how to run a program.
"I'm really looking forward to working with [Athletic Director] Steve Schairier and [Principal] Dr. Oliveira at King Philip," Coute added.
A helpful tip for avid Hockomock League fans - the pronunciation of Coute is just like "Kurt." And for those curious on how familiar Coute is with the KP program, he knew nearly a half of a dozen players by name and said he had seen the Warriors on film already.
The 30-year-old is the third coach for the Warriors in the last four years. Coute replaces Tim Clifford, who helped turn the Warriors around from a 4-16 record in his first season to 9-11 this past season. Sean McInnis was at the helm for four years before Clifford, coaching the Warriors to a D2 South Sectional finals appearance in 2011 with Jake Layman.
Ryan Lanigan can be contacted at [email protected] and followed on Twitter at @R_Lanigan.