It was a difficult year for Aaron Windler but he feels like there is a synergy to his return.
On his first official day back into the boys basketball coaching ranks, his Kansas Jayhawks are playing for a national championship this evening as he gets announced as Mountain Pointe’s new coach.
“It’s pretty amazing to me,” said Windler, who graduated from Kansas. “Four years ago, when I took over Chaparral, Kansas beat a John Calipari team (Memphis) and hopefully we have a similar outcome against a John Calipari team (Kentucky) tonight.”
While another win for Kansas would be great for Windler, 37, and the Jayhawks fans, he hopes he has a longer stay at Mountain Pointe than he did at Chaparral.
He resigned after four successful seasons in November, after preseason practice already started, and took the year off after trouble started brewing within the Chaparral basketball community.
Windler stayed in touch with the game by going to practices at various high schools, Grand Canyon and Arizona State.
All it did was accelerate his drive to coach again and now he has that chance.
“It is a situation where I feel like I am going to have an unlimited amount of support from the administration,” he said. “I missed practice. Games are great, but I love going to practice and teaching the game.”
Windler is meeting with Mountain Pointe principal Bruce Kipper and athletic director Ian Moses today and will probably meet the players on Tuesday with a parent’s meeting soon after that.
Check back for a more in-depth story later today.
Contact: (480) 898-7915 or jskoda@ahwatukee.com. Follow him on Twitter @JSkodaAFN.
