Cushing hires Jake Phillips as head girls basketball coach

Cushing has hired its next girls basketball coach.

Former Newcastle assistant girls basketball coach Jake Phillips will take over as the Tigers head coach, Phillips announced on Facebook Wednesday morning.

The Cushing position will be Phillips second girls basketball head coaching job. He spent a year in Texas as the head coach at Samnorwood, a school that is now closed. Phillips said he is “really excited” for his first opportunity to lead an Oklahoma program.

“It’s a great area, it’s a program with a lot of tradition,” Phillips said. “Coach [Pat] Elder and Coach [Brian] Busby have built an amazing program there. They have amazing facilities. And that really drove me to apply and I was so thankful when they said, ‘we’d love for you to come on board’”.

Along with basketball, Phillips coached softball at Newcastle serving as the head coach of the slowpitch team and the assistant coach of the fastpitch team. He will continue to coach softball at Cushing as the assistant coach of the fastpitch team.

“I’ve got to coach under two pillars with Coach [Brett] Sanders in basketball and Coach [Mike] Crossley in softball,” Phillips said. “I’ve learned one of the biggest things is to create that unity and create that family feel in your program.”

Phillips will succeed Coach Busby who took an administrative role.