Monroe will welcome a new head coach to the varsity basketball program next year – Coach Delmar Hoskins. Hoskins has been around the program for 14 years, coaching freshmen and junior varsity, and assisting with varsity basketball at MHS.

Hoskins said he is going to start with this off season getting in the gym, getting his team in the weight room and going over his new norms.

“I am getting them prepared for a tough season in the S.E.C.,” said Hoskins. “It will be different because I won’t have Raynard Pouncy. He was a great player, but we are going to still do the same stuff as last year but just with a different twist.”

Hoskins said that it will not be any different going from assistant to head coach because before he was an assistant coach, he was head coach for both freshmen and junior varsity for 12 years.

“One of our weaknesses right now is player’s IQs,” he said. “They are average. I expect them to be higher by the season.  The strength that we have is we are taller in the guard position and that’s just what we need right now.”

Junior Anfernee Walden is a returning player for the Trojans. He said that Coach Hoskins is a very good coach.

“This was a very good move for the program,” Walden said. “He has been a part of the program for over 10 years.”

Athletic Director John Ray is optimistic about what Hoskins will bring to the program.

“Coach Delmar has studied basketball his whole life,” Ray said. “He is just going to work around the clock and help them get better.”