Boys basketball preview: New area head coaches

The following are new area boys high school basketball coaches.

The boys season begins on Friday, Nov. 30. The girls basketball season began last week.

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Ansonia: Devin Limburg was promoted to succeed Chad Cramer.

Arcanum: Jim Melton succeeds Marcus Bixler, who resigned after four seasons. It's the first head coach position for Melton, who spent 18 seasons coaching in Indiana, where he's from.

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Botkins: Sean Powell succeeds Brett Meyer, who resigned after 14 seasons with the Trojans. Powell previously was an assistant at Lima Perry.

Dunbar: Former Belmont boys coach Lyle Cole succeeds Chuck Taylor, who lasted one season as the Wolverines' coach. Cole was lured back into coaching and becomes the third Dunbar coach in three seasons.

Fairborn: Billy Harchick succeeds Nathan Chivington. Fairborn's all-time winningest coach, Chivington resigned to succeed Kevin Higgins at Lebanon. Harchick was Fairborn's girls coach the last two seasons.

Graham: Grant Hall succeeds Nathan Warner, who led the Falcons last season only.

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Hamilton: Kevin Higgins resigned after four seasons at Lebanon to succeed Sean Van Winkle, who led the Big Blue for four seasons.

Lebanon: Nathan Chivington resigned as Fairborn's all-time winningest coach to succeed Kevin Higgins. Higgins resigned after four seasons to succeed Sean Van Winkle at Hamilton.

Mechanicsburg: Michael Cantrell was promoted to succeed Tyler Craig, who resigned after two seasons and two wins.

New Bremen: Brad Francis succeeds Adam Dougherty, who resigned after seven seasons. Francis was a St. Henry assistant last season and previously succeeded John Willoughby as Houston's head coach in 2016-17.

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New Knoxville: Mike Piatt succeeds Josh Lisi, who resigned after three seasons. Piatt most recently was the coach at Milton-Union in 2016-17 and also was the head coach at Lehman Catholic and Miami Valley and an assistant at Tippecanoe.

Northmont: Shane Kincer was promoted to succeed Collin Abels, who resigned after five seasons. Shane is the brother of Northmont girls head coach Bethany Kincer.

Ponitz: Allen Spears succeeds Steve Pittman, who guided the Golden Panthers for two seasons. A Patterson grad, Spears was a longtime middle school and JV coach at Northmont.

Southeastern: John O'Laughlin was promoted to succeed Brian Hecker. Hecker coached the Trojans to a district title in 2016, but this past season the Trojans were 3-20. Matt McCurdy resigned after one season as the Kenton Ridge girls coach to initially succeed Hecker. McCurdy has since retained the Kenton Ridge girls position.

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Talawanda: Bobby Jones succeeds Tim Reed. The Braves' baseball coach, Reed agreed to coach the team last season when Chris Coles failed to move to the Talawanda area from Michigan and was relieved of the position. The son of former Miami University men's coach Charlie Coles, Chris Coles had succeeded Eddie Glaser. Jones spent the last 10 seasons as the head coach at Hagerstown (Ind.).

Valley View: Butch Stidham was promoted to succeed Ben Buehner, who guided the Spartans the last eight seasons.

West Carrollton: Anthony Parker succeeds Tony Clemens, who resigned after four seasons. It's the first head coach position for Parker, previously a Trotwood-Madison assistant. Clemens returned to Trotwood as a boys assistant.

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