Leavitt athletic director Doug Conn weighed the credentials of a half-dozen candidates for the school's varsity boys' basketball job and realized he didn't have to look any further than the gridiron across the parking lot to bolster the program.

Mike Hathaway, Leavitt's head football coach the last six years, was approved as the new boys' basketball coach by the SAD 52 school board Thursday.

Hathaway, who will be 34 in September, succeeds Christian Gurney, who resigned after the Hornets finished 1-17 in his first full season at the helm. Gurney had replaced Mike Remillard, who was fired late in the 2006-07 season for a halftime motivational tactic that school officials deemed inappropriate.

"It's been a strange time for the program the last two years. There's been a lot of change and I think the program needed someone to come in and give it some stability," Hathaway said. "I'm going to be around here for awhile, so I thought I'd be a good candidate."

Conn cited Hathaway's ties to the community and his coaching acumen as strengths that stood out in his candidacy. He said Hathaway's ability to juggle both sports at the varsity level was discussed.

"We actually had a second interview with him and expressed those concerns, and I believe that Mike wouldn't have even applied if he felt it would have been too much," Conn said. "He's already handed into me his summer program for football. He's already handed in his summer program for basketball. It's spelled out by the hour what he's going to be doing with which group."

Hathaway said he had been interested in doing both jobs as far back as 2003, when Remillard was hired, but was starting a young family at the time.

"Football is at a point now where it's being run pretty well, and I'm a little more settled down than I probably was at that time, so I thought I could handle both," he said.

Leavitt's basketball team will compete in the KVAC Class A next season, then drop down to Class B in the fall of 2009 due to declining enrollment.

For the 2008-09 season, the Hornets will return six players who saw considerable varsity time, including their leading scorer, center Doug Nash. They are just one year removed from reaching the Eastern Class A quarterfinals, but last year's 1-17 record set the program back.

"It's going to take a little bit of an attitude change. We're going to work real hard and try to get better, but we're just going to try to do a lot of things with a winning attitude," Hathaway said. "I think we can be pretty competitive this year, then hopefully dropping down to Class B will be a good move for us."

Hathaway has seven years of basketball coaching experience, including three as a head coach. He was JV boys' coach for one year and varsity girls' coach at Oak Hill for two years, then spent four years as Mike Adams' assistant at Edward Little.

His football teams are known for moving the ball up and down the field with a sophisticated spread offense, and while Hathaway said he can see getting up and down the floor, too, the immediate emphasis will be on keeping the other team from scoring.

"One of the first things that I think we need to focus on is defense," he said. "Working with Mike at EL, I saw the value of being able to put pressure on teams and really be solid in the halfcourt man-to-man. I think that's where we're going to focus first and let the offense come."