Former North Laurel head coach Brad Sizemore is trading his Jaguar blue for Bobcat blue. In a press conference held at Bell County High School on Friday, principal Brian Crawford announced the new head coach.

Sizemore spent the past eight years as head coach of the North Laurel Jaguars boys varsity basketball team. In his first year leading the Jaguars, he lead North Laurel to its first and only 13th Region Tournament championship with a win over 49th District opponent, Clay County.

“This just seemed like a great fir for me and my family,” said Sizemore. “My wife and her entire family are from here. I’ve been coming here for the last four years, and I’m just really familiar with the area. It felt like it was a great fit for us. Bell County has some great athletes. They take a lot of pride in their sports programs around here.”

In his first four years with the Jags, Sizemore lead his team to a 60-64 record. In his final four seasons, Sizemore lead the Jags to a 100-29 record.

In the last four years, Sizemore guided North Laurel to four consecutive 20-win seasons, consecutive 49th District Tournament championships and made an appearance in this past year’s 13th Region title game.

Sizemore compiled a 160-95 record during his eight years at North Laurel, good for the all-time record at North Laurel High School. Sizemore also lead his team to two district titles.

Sizemore played his high school basketball with the South Laurel Cardinals prior to playing at Berea College. Sizemore began his coaching career with the Cardinals.

“This is a great opportunity. I think we have a chance to be very competitive,” said Sizemore about the Bobcats. “I think it’s a great school with a great administration with a lot of support from the community. It’s something that my family and I are extremely excited about, so it was an easy transition.”

Sizemore intends on getting his young Bobcat squad into shape and making sure they stay competitive for 32 minutes.

“I think we are going to have to get into great shape,” said Sizemore. “We are going to try to play up-tempo basketball. We are going to try to guard people full-court and get out and score a lot of points. When you do that, I think your team plays a little bit more loose, and they have a lot more fun. They play harder when they’re having fun.

“It’s going to be a work-in-progress, it’s not going to be an over-night fix. We’ve got to take it one day at a time. We’ve got to get to the weight room and see what I’m working with, but I like what I’ve seen so far. We are going to try to get the players into smaller groups and work with them individually on their fundamentals, I’m very big on individual development. Hopefully over the course of the next three or four months, we can make some tremendous strides.”