There is a new leader in charge of the Smoky Valley girls basketball program.

Smoky Valley High School announced Monday the hiring of Jason Drouillard as girls basketball head coach. Drouillard replaces Larry VenDerWege, who was the head coach for the past two seasons.

During that same two-year span, Drouillard served as the Smoky Valley Middle School girls basketball coach. Drouillard looks forward to building on a successful 2020-21 campaign. The Lady Vikes went 13-8, their first winning season since 2007-08.

“I’m amped up just to get started,” Drouillard said. “This is the best job a coach could ask for and I’m certainly very thankful for the opportunity. It’s going to be a blast building a special program here, and it starts this summer.”

While attending Kansas State University, Drouillard was an assistant for the boys basketball team at Blue Valley Randolph Middle School. Drouillard then went to Bethany and played football.

After graduating from Bethany, Drouillard coached the seventh grade boys basketball team at Great Bend Middle School. After accepting a teaching position at Smoky Valley, Drouillard was offered the girls basketball head coaching position at SVMS. Smoky Valley made back-to-back appearances in the league championship game.

“The culture has been the one thing I’ve been most proud of,” Drouillard said. “We have built a special program, and I’m excited to bring that to the high school level.”