Marshall officially named Liberty boys basketball coach

Liberty pulled off a major coup Tuesday when Mountaineer alum Dave Marshall was approved as the new boys basketball coach.

For Liberty athletic director Robert Herrod, another former Liberty athlete who has returned to the school in an administrative capacity, it’s a proud moment to add Marshall to the school’s coaching ranks.

“We’re very happy to have coach Marshall want to come home to Liberty High School,” Herrod said. “He graduated from Liberty, and I think it shows a lot of what his thought process was — to hear how important he thought the school is. He’s been around us and at our ball games lately.

“I think that he just wanted to come back and make a positive difference, like the rest of us that are all making our way back to Liberty. It’s a very unique school because we have so many people that’s graduated from there that went on to be successful in other areas.

“To start getting them back, I think, is a huge deal for the school — for the kids, the school and the community — I think it’s going to be a really great thing.”

Herrod noted that the hire, though, was no different from any other one in the Harrison County school system.

“It was just the basic interview process,” Herrod said. “There’s nothing secretive about it or anything, just the basic interview process.

“Every time you have jobs available you’re going to hear some rumblings, and people are going to say, ‘Hey, I heard so-and-so was going to do this or do that.’ The jobs we have as administrators, and the individuals who do the hiring process, until you actually get your applicants and go through the legal process, you really don’t do much.

“We knew as a staff that he was interested, but who would want to take a program that hasn’t won very many ball games in a couple of years. Who would want to take on that challenge? But I think that’s one of the things when you look at it, that’s going to be a positive thing because he’s going to take the program in the right direction. These are great kids that we have at our school, so hopefully he can get things turned around and get us back to where we need to be.”

Marshall bring a 349-105 record with him as a girls basketball coach at Bridgeport that includes a Class AA state championship in 2012-13, and is a proven winner, defensive guru and disciplinarian.

“I think it’s a huge deal,” Herrod said. “I think when you get an individual like that — a person of good character, which is huge, and I’m not saying our last coach wasn’t. I think he was a great guy as well — but you get a person who is a proven winner, a person that is a disciplinarian. You get an individual that understands the game. There is no doubt in my mind. To me, he is the best basketball coach in this area that I know of, and one of the best basketball coaches in the state, if not the best basketball coach in the state. To have him show up at our door to come back home, I think that’s an awesome thing. I’m very excited about it, and I think that the people who already knew this was going to happen after seeing the board agenda and you guys having an article in the paper the other day with it, those people have kind of approached us and said things about it, they’re smiling from ear to ear.”

Still, as excited as Herrod is, he has realistic expectations about the rebuilding process that is beginning now with Marshall at the helm.

“It’s a process,” Herrod said. “Everyone has to understand that. It’s going to take us some time, I think, but I don’t think you can hire a better guy for that job.”