Herber was the boys’ track coach and an assistant coach with the football team at North Attleboro. He is also a history teacher at the school and a 1991 graduate of North.
Although Herber has not coached basketball in several years, Juelis highlighted his understanding of the sport and what is needed to build the program as two of the reasons for his selection.
“Derek has the right balance between basketball knowledge and working with the overall program,” said Juelis by phone on Thursday. “He will need to lead the program not just for this coming season, but for the next few years down the road.”
There were two rounds of interviews, according to Juelis. The first was conducted by Athletic Director Kurt Kummer to narrow down the candidates to the top four and then a second interview was held with the principal. Juelis said that the two then worked together on the final decision.
Juelis added that he believes Herber is the right person “to sustain the level of success” that the Rocketeers have enjoyed in recent seasons. North has won back-to-back Kelley-Rex division titles and returns a core of strong players including seniors Melissa Beaupre and Danielle Perron and talented young players with varsity experience such as sophomores Julia Strachan and Ashley Ahern.
Herber gained national notoriety this past spring when he reported an incorrect score at the Division 2 track meet that cost the Rocketeers the state championship, which instead was awarded to Central Catholic.
“I truly believe that any coach, any coach in North Attleboro, any coach at Central Catholic and 99 percent of the coaches in the state of Massachusetts in all sports would have done the same thing,” Herber told the Boston Globe.
When asked about that incident and whether it played a role in the decision to hire Herber for the vacant position, Juelis said, “That says a lot about the character of the person. I think it’s something that we would expect of all our coaches…it’s within our culture here.”
Juelis added, “He did the right thing; not the popular thing.”