Anthony Winchester is heading home – sort of.

The former Western Kentucky basketball standout, who served as WKU’s director of operations this past season, told the Daily News on Monday he has accepted the head boys’ coaching position at Scottsburg High School in Indiana, located a mere five miles from his hometown of Austin, Ind.

“I’m really excited to have the chance to get back and be close to the family again and have this opportunity,” Winchester said. “It’s a great opportunity that I’m really excited about and really looking forward to.”

The move concludes Winchester’s two-year stint as a member of the WKU staff. He served as a graduate intern during coach Ken McDonald’s first season in 2008-09 before taking over as director of operations last season.

“Working with coach McDonald was big for me – he gave everybody a lot of room to improve and the chance to do a lot of things,” Winchester said. “I was always involved with everything and was able to sort of learn about what was going on.

“It was my first real coaching job and after going through that, I feel like I’m ready.”

Winchester finished his playing career at WKU at No. 8 on the school’s all-time scoring list with 1,732 points. The 2006 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year, Winchester averaged 18.6 points a game during his senior season, when he also earned honorable mention All-America honors.

Following his career as a Hilltopper, Winchester briefly played professionally in Europe before a back injury forced him to return home and begin a coaching career.

Winchester then spent a portion of the 2007-08 season on the bench at Bowling Green High School as an assistant to Purples coach D.G. Sherrill before moving to WKU as a graduate assistant for McDonald. After flirting with the idea of joining former WKU coach Darrin Horn as a video coordinator at South Carolina, Winchester ultimately decided to stay at WKU.

Winchester said he looks forward to returning to his native area, but leaving WKU will be a bittersweet experience.

“I love Western,” he said. “I played here and I’ve been here pretty much since I got done playing outside of a brief stint overseas. It’s a home away from home for me, and I’ll be back supporting the Tops for sure.

“I’ll make as many games as I can in support of the Hilltoppers next season and 20 years down the road – I’ll always love it here.”

As far as the new job is concerned, Winchester finds himself in an unfamiliar role inside one of Indiana prep basketball’s oldest rivalries.

A star at Austin High School before his WKU career, Winchester averaged a whopping 34.7 points a game during his senior season in 2001-02. He finished second in Indiana’s Mr. Basketball vote to former North Carolina standout Sean May.

Natural rivals that sit just minutes apart, Austin and Scottsburg have a long-standing tradition of playing each other in the first game of each season.

Austin is scheduled to host this season’s matchup, meaning that Winchester’s first career head coaching appearance will be as the leader of his alma mater’s biggest rival.

“That’s a huge rivalry, and it’ll be different,” Winchester said. “They always play that first game of the year just before Thanksgiving, and I think they’ve played over 130 times, so it’ll definitely be a lot of fun.

“It’ll be a good crowd and a good experience because the first game I ever coach in (for Scottsburg) will be at Austin – so that should be a lot of fun.”