The Lady Chick basketball team has a new coach. Norman North assistant boys coach Matt Layman will be taking over the Chickasha girls program after being hired last week to replace Ron Anderson, who recently resigned to return “home” to take over the Ada program.

This is Layman’s first head coaching job at the high school level and his first experience coaching girls. He comes with a wealth of 6A experience, though, as an assistant boys varsity coach at Mustang, Moore and, most recently, a three-year run with Butch Roberts at Norman North.

“I know a lot of people that have coached both boys and girls and they’ve told me that (the switch) wouldn’t be a problem,” the new coach said, adding, “I’ve always been close to the girls’ programs at schools I’ve been at in the past.

“Basketball is basketball. I’ve heard that girls are easier to coach and are more fun to coach. We’ll really get to work on fundamentals as soon as school starts.”

Layman plans to set up a meeting with the girls and assistant coaches Eric Golightly and Cathleen Gappa before then.

A graduate of Broken Arrow HS, he continued his studies at Tulsa Community College and has a degree in education from the University of Oklahoma.