Mark Hatcher has a strong understanding of what it takes to be successful at Logan High School, and in turn, what success from Wildcats’ athletic programs means to the community.
Approved late Monday by the Logan County Board of Education to return to the sidelines as Wildcats boys basketball head coach, Hatcher hopes that aids in the transition for his return to the sidelines.
Hatcher, a 1989 graduate of LHS, was previously head coach for 15 years, a tenure that ended in 2015 with a 236-138 record and two state championships — 2005 in Class AA and five years later in Class AAA.
“Logan is a unique place to coach with any sport and definitely basketball. It has a very steep tradition since the 1950s and 60s,” Hatcher said. “It’s a unique place to grow up in and we take our sports very seriously in this area. Having done it before and been through it before, knowing how our community likes to be involved and feel like they’re a part of it, every decision I make the community needs to be taken into consideration as part of it.
“We’re very passionate at Logan. I feel like I have a strong understanding of that and know how to get this community to where we’re altogether on the same page.”
Hatcher replaces Jeff Williamson, who stepped down in April after one year in the position. Williamson had taken over for Zach Green, the Wildcats’ head coach for seven seasons starting in 2016.
“I sort of got out of it there at a time where I wanted to do some different things to try and help my family on the business side of the world,” Hatcher said. “I’d worked multiple jobs — as nurse in the ER, a school nurse and a basketball coach. I got an opportunity to make a little more money and to travel and do some different things and I enjoyed that, but I also missed coaching.”
While Hatcher routinely traveled to 13 states — an abundance of which were on the west coast — to sell medical equipment, he still kept a watch on high school basketball across West Virginia, particularly in Logan County and surrounding areas.
“I’ve kept in touch and been part of a local radio show since 2017 that covers southern West Virginia basketball, so I’ve been involved with it and followed it. I still go to the state tournament every year and I’d watch other teams play,” Hatcher said. “Every time you go to the state tournament as an old coach or player, it always hits you. Everybody gets that itch in march if you’re an ex-coach. Just one of those things. Not being a coach allowed me to just go enjoy games, watch plays and players and not have to write down scouts.”
While the Wildcats are one of the most tradition-rich programs across the Mountain State and qualified for the Class AAA state tournament two of the last three seasons, it’s been since the 2010 state-title winning campaign that Logan last won a state tournament game.
“We won a lot of games since I left and the program is in good shape,” Hatcher said. “We have some talent here now and talent coming up. I was so excited the first time that I was on cloud nine for a whole year probably, but the first year, I won four games, so I hope I do better than that this year or I might get run out of town. I have nephews coming up through the Buddy League and I want to make sure we have a strong youth league. Our middle school seems to be doing really well and they’re a part of our program. I don’t know how other places do it. I just know how we do it. The head basketball coach is pretty much over basketball here top to bottom and expected to be involved with decisions from 4 years old and up. Those are things I’ll have to work to get back into.”
Starting with Hatcher’s first season back in his return to the sidelines, Logan moves down to Class AA.
“Going back down to Double-A and changing the schedule a bit with teams we used to have great rivalries with is exciting,” Hatcher said. “I always loved the battles in Wyoming County and Mingo County, and we’ve always had great local battles as well with Chapmanville and Man.
“It got to be tough the last few years my last time around playing in Triple-A and a lot of things made it really hard. I’m glad the SSAC has made some changes and it’s made things more fair. I like the possibility of playing some of those rivals again.”
Hatcher admits perhaps the toughest part of his return to coaching will be adapting to an era of high school athletics he’s largely unfamiliar with from a coaching perspective, but says he’s eager for the challenge.
“I understand kids are different now and people have told me a thousand times you may not be able to coach the way you did last time, but that’s the only way I know how to coach,” Hatcher said of what he describes as an old-school approach. “A lot of kids don’t remember me coaching before, maybe just remember the name and they can go back and look at accomplishments or records. I look forward to establishing new relationships. I’m going to be coaching kids of the kids that I’d coached before and that’s not something I thought I’d do, but it’s interesting and I look forward to that.
“The challenges of coaching kids these days is they have so many things going on and social media is such a big involvement. That was not that big when I coached last time and we were just starting to get into a lot of the new apps. We used to always trade DVDs for film and go to games in person to get a scout. In one way, I guess it’s easier. I am looking forward to try and figure it out, I’m excited and want to make Logan a good basketball team. We already have a good program. I want to continue that and just make us stronger. I want to be sure the community is a part of this team and the team is a part of the community.”