photo by: Submitted photo

Former Hayden coach Dwayne Paul is set to become the next head boys basketball coach at Free State High School, pending board approval.

Dwayne Paul will be the next head boys basketball coach at Free State, pending board approval, the school announced on Monday. The hire comes after former coach Sherron Collins submitted his resignation last month.

Paul comes to Free State after spending the last two years coaching the boys’ basketball team at Topeka-Hayden High School. Hayden finished its 2022-23 campaign 11-11, falling to Atchison in the Class 4A substate tournament.

Previously, Paul served as the assistant men’s basketball coach at Emporia State from 2013-2018.

“To the entire Firebird community, thank you for giving me this opportunity that most could only dream of,” Paul said in a Twitter post on Monday. “I look forward to every challenge set before us. I hope you are ready to work.”

During its sole season under Collins, Free State finished 11-10 (5-3 in league play), falling to an eighth-seeded Junction City team 65-42 in the first round of the Class 6A west substate playoff in Junction City.

Jered Shaw, athletic director at Free State, was quick to move on the head coaching vacancy.

“Coach Paul brings a strong background of head coaching experience at the high school level,” Shaw said in a statement released on Monday. “His experience, coaching and playing, and his passion for impacting student athletes positively have prepared Coach Paul to build on the strong tradition of Free State basketball.”

A former high school basketball player himself, Paul graduated from James Bowie High School in Arlington, Texas, in 2003 and continued playing basketball at Eastfield College before transferring to Birmingham Southern on a Division I scholarship for the 2005-06 season.

Paul finished his college career at Murray State in 2008, receiving a bachelor of science degree in business advertising. He received his master’s degree from the University of Wyoming in 2011.

After school, Paul had a short stint playing basketball professionally with the East Kentucky Miners of the now-defunct Continental Basketball Association. The league ceased operations midway through the 2008-09 season.