Newly hired Straughn assistant basketball coach Marc Tracy said that he believes hard work will allow a team to be successful.

“You can do a lot with it, and the kids want to work,” he said. “You don’t have to have all of the talent in the world to be successful.”

Sitting in the SHS boys basketball locker room Tuesday afternoon, Tracy said he is “excited” to have the opportunity to coach at the school.

“Straughn basketball has had some real tough times,” he said. “We’ve got a good group of kids. They do everything we ask of them.

“The big thing is trying to change the attitude around (basketball), not just the kids in general,” he said. “This is a football place, and the baseball team has been successful. With the facilities we have here, and the group of student athletes, there should be no reason we shouldn’t be successful.”

Tracy will start his second year as a teacher and a coach in the fall, after serving as the head junior varsity and assistant varsity coach at Valley High School in Valley, Ala. near the Auburn-Opelika area.

While at VHS, Tracy said his junior varsity team won 10 games last season, and the varsity team finished 22-6 at the regional tournament.

Just how did Tracy wind up at Straughn?

“I know coach (Kenneth) Skipper,” Tracy said. “He gave me a call about the open position, and I interviewed for it.”

When asked why he likes to coach basketball, Tracy said it is a simple matter of being able to build “relationships” with the players.

“It just gives you more of an opportunity to get to know the kids,” he said. “Relationships are a big thing for me.”

Tracy will be teaching 12th grade government and economics at SHS and eighth grade history at Straughn Middle School.