BCISD hires new coaches including volleyball, softball
JENNIFER FIERRO • STAFF WRITER
BURNET — The coaching staff at Burnet Consolidated Independent School District is coming together with several new hires for the 2016-17 school year, including two new head coaches.
Veronica Lee is the new head volleyball coach. She was at Brentwood Christian School the past several years. Last year, the Brentwood volleyball team won the Class 3A state championship in the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools.
Lee is a graduate of the old Austin Johnston High School and won an NCAA Division I national championship with Long Beach State in the late 1990s.
“We’re super impressed with her,” said BCISD athletic director Kurt Jones. “She has an impressive résumè going back to her playing days. She’ll bring some great things to our program.”
B.J. Brown will be the new head softball coach. His wife, Camille, is a new assistant cross-country and track coach, while Chelsea Sivells is a new assistant basketball coach. The three coached at Marble Falls Independent School District last year.
“We’re excited,” Jones said. “We had some pretty good insight on them. I’ve always said there’s no better reference than someone who has worked with them. (New girls athletic coordinator David) Schubert had firsthand information on them and knew they were fantastic at what they do. Working with them, he knows the kind of work they do. That’s the best reference you can get from someone who’s worked with them.”
Schubert was the Marble Falls High School girls athletic coordinator and girls head basketball coach last year before taking the job at Burnet.
Garrett Hagen is the new outside linebackers coach for the football team and an assistant track coach, joining the Bulldogs after coaching at Lockhart High School. Rick Gates is the new boys assistant basketball coach, and Lance Jones is the new Burnet Middle School boys coordinator.
Hagen was recommended to Jones by assistant coach Bryan Robinson.
“(Lockhart head coach Brian) Herman just had great things to say about coach Hagen,” Jones said. “He hated to lose him. We feel fortunate to get coach Hagen over here.”
Gates arrives from Katy Mayde Creek High School, where he was in the same role.
“We’re very impressed with his basketball experience,” Jones said. “It didn’t take (Burnet boys head basketball coach Roy) Kiser long to lock him up to replace (former assistant coach Stuart) Dixon.”
“Lance Jones has been a member of the BMS coaching staff for a couple of years, and he brings a lot of great qualities to the table,” Kurt Jones said.
Lance Jones, a former Marine, comes from a coaching family and has plenty of experience.
Kurt Jones said that when he looked at Lance Jones’ background, his ability to connect with people and his experience coaching at BMS, it was a no-brainer to promote him.
“There’s no more valuable information than to have had someone work for you and had the opportunity to meet with them and work with them,” the athletic director said.
Jones said he has offered the position of girls head track and head cross-country coach and is waiting to hear an answer.
And he believes the new additions to the staff will help the athletic department get to where it wants to go.
“We feel like we have a great opportunity in our program from being good to great and be one of the best programs in the state,” he said. “We want to be elite and at the tip top. We feel like we’re putting together a staff to take us there.”
jfierro@thepicayune.com