Watonga schools have a new superintendent, and now Watonga High has a new boys basketball coach. And as it turns out, their paths have crossed before.
Brandon Gallagher arrived in Watonga with his family Tuesday morning to tour the facilities and get to know the school he’ll call home after years coaching Cordell.
“I think (Watonga) has always been a place that has a great reputation academically and athletically,” Gallagher told the Watonga Republican. “This opportunity came up, and we thought this was a good time for us to go.”
Gallagher began his coaching career as an assistant at Weatherford High School, where new Watonga superintendent Kyle Hilterbran was a student at the time. “I actually played for him one year,” Hilterbran said.
Gallagher’s wife, Tiffani, also played basketball at Clarendon College under current Watonga Athletic Director Joel Zehr.
Gallagher then spent 17 years at Pioneer High before moving to Cordell for the past six years. “I’m not a guy that’s moved around a whole bunch,” Gallagher said. “The last 23 years, I’ve been in two places.”
But Gallagher said he’s looking forward to getting to know his team. He plans to “let everybody finish up their spring sports” and stay out of the way before starting on basketball planning this summer. “Hopefully the COVID restrictions are kind of being lifted as far as camps, and stuff like that,” he said. “So that’ll be the plan.”
Gallagher said his teams like to play fast, “positionless” basketball. “It changes from year to year, obviously,” he said, “but we like to play up-tempo, we like to get out and pressure the basketball, run, and kind of have a real fun style.”
Tiffani Gallagher is a school counselor and plans to continue that position in Watonga. She said her family is excited to get to know a new town. “We’ve always been a big believer in signs,” she said, “and we just kind of have seen some signs that it’s time to take advantage of an opportunity that presented itself very unexpectedly. All of this has happened very quickly. We just kind of felt like they were showing us the way, and it was time.”
“He’s a great basketball coach, but he’s also good in the classroom,” Hilterbran said. “He has a great wife who’s going to come in and help us out, too. They’re a good team, and we’re lucky to have them.”
Hilterbran also thanked outgoing basketball coach Kirk Graham, who he said did “a heck of a job” with “building the program.”
The Gallaghers have a son, Bode, who will start at Oklahoma State University this fall, and their daughter Piper will be a junior at Watonga High.
The Eagles are coming off a 10-5 season shortened by COVID-19 cancellations.