When former Lake Dallas girls basketball coach Julie McMinn left to take a middle school coordinator job in The Colony after last season, Lake Dallas athletics director Scott Head knew he had to bring in a quality replacement.

He wanted to continue the success McMinn had built for the Lady Falcons, taking them to the playoffs in each of her two years.

When Head met Jason Boston, he seemed like a natural fit for the job. After all, the two had met before. They just didn’t realize it.

“I thought, ‘I know this guy,’” said Head, who had some classes with Boston at East Texas State (now Texas A&M-Commerce). “I didn’t have a clue until the interview and we both looked at each other were like, ‘I know you from somewhere.’ It’s a small world.”

Boston comes from a family of coaches. His father was a head basketball coach for 15 years and also coached football, coaching former Oklahoma great Billy Sims. His younger brother is the head boys basketball coach in Atlanta, Texas.

Boston has been a head coach for 10 of his 15 years of coaching, though he returns to the sidelines this year after three years away from the game. He’s had stops in Redwater and most recently at Texarkana Texas High, which he led to the playoffs with a 24-8 record and lost in a play-in game in his final two years.

Boston said he had been looking to get back into coaching and had interviews for assistant jobs at Cedar Hill and a few other schools. But coming to Lake Dallas was an easy choice for the 40-year old.

“I was just real impressed with the athletic programs,” Boston said. “It was a really good situation and I knew a lot about Coach Head and the program there. The kids have been enthusiastic and excited. We’ll have three teams [freshman, junior varsity and varsity] this year and in the past couple there’s been only two. It’s the first time we’ve had a freshman team in about three years. We’re really trying to work on our numbers and getting interest in the program.

“It was an opportunity to return to girls basketball and an opportunity to be a head coach,” he said. “I thought it was a good opportunity to work with some good people at Lake Dallas.”

Lake Dallas finished last season with a 22-13 record and a loss to Springtown in the bi-district round of the playoffs. The Lady Falcons return four varsity players from that squad and one starter in post Hailey Broderick. They lost St. Edward’s signee Kelsee Barr to graduation.

“I’ve been impressed,” Boston said. “We’ve got some size. We’ve got four girls that are 5-10 and taller and we have some shooters. I like to play fast and the kids have adjusted well to getting up and down the floor. Seven of the nine have been with me all year because they were in the basketball offseason program.”

Boston likes to run a fast-paced offense and isn’t afraid to let his shooters shoot. In fact, while at Texas High, he had the state leader in Class 4A in 3-pointers made with more than 100.

“I like the kids to have fun and running up and down does that,” Boston said. “We shoot a lot and we want to improve every day. We work on fundamentals and try to play as fast as we can. The kids have done a really good job of doing that. I know they were taught well by the previous coach and in middle school, so we’ve kind of hit the ground running.”

With the limited group coming back from last year’s team and a new system to learn, Boston said he’s being careful with expectations, but one thing he does expect is to see improvement from day to day.

“I know Denton Ryan is really good and other than that I don’t know that much about the district,” he said. “I kind of speak softly and just want to go get after it. We’ll see as we go. But the big thing is just to improve every day. We’ll try to win every game and put our best effort out there.”

No matter how Lake Dallas responds in the win column this season, Boston said he’s just enjoying being back on the sideline, and especially the teaching aspect of coaching.

“It has been fantastic [being back after three years],” he said. “I’ve been like a fish out of water. Being back in the gym has been good. It’s funny, when you’re away you miss some things you never thought you’d miss. The practice floor is what you miss the most. For me it’s just been the teaching and being on the floor.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m fired up as can be for that first game but the first two weeks it’s been about bringing the group together and molding them into a team.”

ADAM BOEDEKER can be reached at 940-566-6872. His e-mail address is aboedeker@dentonrc.com.