Bishop Seabury basketball players huddle around coach Ashley Battles during their season opener against Hanover on Thursday at Seabury.

Bishop Seabury boys basketball coach Ashley Battles has watched the program grow for the past seven seasons, and he’s proud of the progress.

Battles resigned from his head coaching position after leading the Seahawks to third place in the Class 2A state tournament — the highest finish in program history. In seven seasons, Battles led Seabury to a 91-59 record, including three state tournament appearances.

With Battles and his wife expecting their fourth child in August, “That’s when it became pretty clear that this was it,” Battles said.

Seabury announced Jonathan Raney as the new varsity boys basketball coach Wednesday, after he spent three seasons as an assistant at Barstow (Mo.).

“We are replacing a really good coach with another really good coach, and the high level of coaching will not change,” Seabury athletic director Eric Nelson said, noting Raney “understands the challenges of coaching at an independent school.”

Earlier this month, the Seahawks lost on a 40-foot buzzer-beater in the state semifinals, which was featured on ESPN’s SportsCenter, in a tournament-record six overtimes.

“There are zero regrets about this year, that’s for sure,” Battles said. “When we came back from Manhattan, we did not feel like we lost any games. When you go to state, that’s basically what you try to do…. We feel like we did that, but unfortunately a 40-foot shot meant we couldn’t play the last game for first place.”

Battles certainly saw many highs and lows of the program. In the past two seasons, the Seahawks have accumulated a 38-9 record with several wins against schools in higher classifications.

Then there was a one-win season in 2012-13.

“It’s funny, if you go back to the 1-17 year,” Battles said, “I know people say this crap, but I look back at that year and I thought that was the year we kind of did our best job coaching the kids.”

Raney grew up in Lawrence, and attended West Middle School and Oskaloosa High before playing college basketball at Cowley County CC and Fort Hays State. He was the head coach at Labette CC, compiling a 52-41 record.

At Barstow, where he was an assistant to former Kansas basketball player Billy Thomas, Raney helped the Knights to two state championship game appearances, including a title in 2015.

“That’s an upgrade,” Battles deadpanned. “Jon Raney knows exactly how to build a team, how to coach a team that already exists. This guy is a star.”

Raney, who coaches AAU basketball in the summer with Kansas City Run GMC, is familiar with some of Seabury’s top returning players and he’s confident there’s enough talent to make another run into the state tournament.

“Being at the high school level for the past three years and obviously the success we’ve had at Barstow, it was definitely very high interest of mine,” Raney said. “Seabury is a great place, great school. They’ve obviously had quite a bit of success the last couple of years…. Just see it’s a great opportunity.”