Steve Brooks won a regional title in 2013, Ypsilanti's first since 1981.
Daniel Brenner | AnnArbor.com file
Updated at 6:35 p.m. with comments from Steve Brooks
Steve Brooks has been hired as Ypsilanti Community Schools' varsity basketball coach, the district announced Tuesday.
Brooks has been the head coach at Ypsilanti for nine seasons and and has built one of the area’s most successful programs.
Ypsilanti has won all four SEC White titles since joining the league prior to the 2009-10 season. Last year, the Phoenix went 20-5 and won its first regional title since 1981 before falling to Saginaw High in the state quarterfinals.
Brooks will lead a team formed from Ypsilanti High School and Willow Run High School, after the two districts merge July 1. Tim Cain coached Willow Run to a 10-11 record last year in his first season at the school.
Brooks said he has held open gyms that included Willow Run players and that "everything's been great." He said he plans on going to Willow Run Wednesday to give Flyers players information about summer leagues.
"I think it’s really no different than when you’ve got kids that come from two middle schools that were once rivals and things like that," Brooks said. "But if you’re pretty consistent and your standards are there it should be no issue.”
Brooks’ hiring comes a day after the district hired longtime Willow Run coach Rufus Pipkins as the school’s new football coach.
New YCS athletic director Lamanzer Williams said that while Brooks has established a strong program at Ypsilanti, the merger will bring about change for every YCS athletic team.
“Every job we’ve got is going to take some work,” Williams said. “Nobody’s coming in with a turnkey. The closest thing to that is probably coach Brooks, but hey he’s worked his butt off for over 10 years and you can see the success he’s had. But even he’s got to work.”
While Pipkins has said the topic of the merger often came up during the fall football season and affected his team, Brooks said it wasn't raised once during the basketball season.
Once his team is together, though, he said he will address the topic of each school's history going forward with the merger.
“I think there’s a real fear that that particular school’s history will be eliminated or whatever, but we’ll touch on it a little bit and we’ll just try to move the kids forward," Brooks said.
Brooks said the varsity assistant and sub-varsity basketball coaches interested in positions with YCS teams will go through the same process he did of being interviewed and hired by a YCS committee, and that he hopes to have input on those decisions. He said that of the former Ypsilanti and Willlow Run coaches that "nobody's out of the picture."
“Hopefully I’m allowed to have a say," Brooks said. "Because that’s big, you almost have to be able to have a hand in who you’re working with and things like that.”
Williams said Monday that interviews would continue throughout the week as YCS continues to fill out its coaching staffs.
Kyle Austin covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kyleaustin@annarbor.com or 734-623-2535. Follow him on Twitter @KAustin_AA.