Bowling Green didn’t have to look far to find its next head boys’ basketball coach.

One seat down the bench, to be exact.

Derrick Clubb will be introduced as the next Purples basketball coach at a news conference at noon Thursday at Bowling Green High School. The Bowling Green site-based decision-making council approved the promotion of Clubb on Tuesday night.

An assistant for seven combined seasons in two different stints, Clubb succeeds former coach D.G. Sherrill, who coached Bowling Green for 12 seasons, 309 wins and the school’s first state championship in March. Sherrill resigned as head coach and athletics director in June for a new role as director of pupil personnel with the Bowling Green Independent School District.

“I’ve had a front row seat for most of the last decade and what we’ve been able to accomplish,” Clubb told the Daily News in a phone interview Tuesday. “Coach Sherrill has been just an unbelievable mentor to me. … From day one he allowed me to have a big voice in some of the things that we do.

“I’ve had a front row seat for what he started and the foundation for what he’s put into place. I’m just humbled and couldn’t be more excited to get started and get working and try to continue what he started 12 years ago.”

Clubb went 59-60 as head coach at South Warren High School in the school’s first four years of existence. Clubb coached South Warren to three seasons with at least a .500 record. He left the Spartans in 2014 to rejoin Sherrill’s staff at Bowling Green.

A Warren East and Western Kentucky University graduate, Clubb was an assistant for Bowling Green for three seasons before taking the South Warren job in 2010.

Having previous head coaching experience was key in the hiring process according to new BGHS AD Mark Spader, who was named to the position last week.

“We felt that head coaching experience was a must for our next coach,” Spader said. “Coach Clubb had a unique opportunity to start a program at a new school where he served as head coach for four years. As a young coach, he gained experience that he was able to take with him when he returned to Bowling Green High as a valuable assistant to coach Sherrill. He has matured and gained new perspective, which I feel will serve him well with this next big step in his coaching career.”

Clubb works as a special education teacher at Bowling Green High School. Having a coach in the building also helped put him ahead of other candidates, BGHS Principal Will King said.

Clubb assumed the interim head coaching duties in June during the summer league schedule. His established relationships with returning players as an assistant for several years, King said, gives him an upper hand in keeping up the program’s momentum moving forward.

“Derrick has been a vital part of our basketball staff for seven years, playing a pivotal role in the success of our basketball program,” King said. “He has been an assistant on five of our six region championship teams and brings a wealth of basketball experience and knowledge. I believe he brings a strong work ethic and skill set that will continue to make Purples basketball one of the elite programs in the state.”{&end}