Gilliam named boys’ head coach at Eastern

By: 
Josh Lewis, Sports Writer

Eastern named their new varsity boys basketball coach on Tuesday night, and they didn’t have to look far to find him. Michael Gilliam was selected at the Eastern School Board meeting on Tuesday night.

Gilliam, who graduated from Eastern in 2006, played basketball during his time as a Musketeer. He coached under Coach Scott Newcomb for several years before moving down to the middle school last season.

Becoming the head coach at Eastern is a dream come true for Gilliam. “For me, it’s everything. It’s a dream job, and I don’t know a lot of coaches that get to say that about their first job. This is something I’ve dreamed about for a long time. It’s the program I played in for a decade, and now have coached in for almost a decade. For it to come full circle now and take it over is an absolute dream come true and I’m just so excited!”

Athletic Director Scott Newcomb said Gilliam was right for the job because of his experience and how he gets along with the kids. “He’s got a good rapport with the kids, both at the middle school and the high school kids. Those things and then his personality; being able to recruit more kids and getting guys to work in his system at all the different levels is a plus for him as well. His work ethic and understanding of basketball, from that standpoint I think he will do a great job.”

Coaching was always something Gilliam wanted to do, and returning to his alma mater was always a goal. “ I don’t know if I envisioned it at the time. Since I was young I’ve known coaching was something I wanted to do. I’ve always loved the game of basketball. Being in the gym has been a second home for me. As I got older and I was blessed to play for guys like Coach Newcomb that were influential and showed me how awesome it can be to be a coach and have that effect on kids. I knew it was something I wanted to do and this was where I wanted ultimately wanted to do it.”

See the full story in Thursday's Salem Democrat.

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