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Little Miami High School hired Steve Mays last week to take over as head coach of the varsity girls basketball program.

Mays, who served as the head coach at Dayton Christian last season, is a resident of West Chester who coached at Mason High for 11 seasons before taking over the Crusaders.

The Pulse-Journal caught up with the 34-year old math teacher prior to the start of Panther mini-camp Tuesday afternoon.

Q: What attracted you to the Little Miami position?

A: "I know the history at Little Miami, and I looked at the statistics and roster from last year and saw that they had a very young team and the potential to get back on top was very high.

"In addition, the location and familiarity played a big role. This is a lot closer to home than Dayton Christian, and having been in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference for so many years with Mason, I'm familiar with the locations and programs within the league as opposed to going someplace else where I'm not familiar.

"Finally, I knew this was a community that definitely supports the program."

Q: What direction to you want to take the program?

A: "There's a lot of good things already started. The youth organization is very strong and the community and parent support is tremendous. I want to continue to build on that relationship with the community and install other community programs for the girls, such as working with the elderly. I'd like to connect our program to the retirement communities in the area and let them know they are just as important to our program as the younger generations.

"On the court, I want to make sure that we are dedicated at all levels to the development of the fundamentals of basketball. You can out-scheme and gameplan as much as you want, but if you struggle with the fundamentals, eventually you will run into somebody that will beat you.

"So, with the youth programs, I'm less concerned that they run the same offensive plays and systems that I run, as I am they teach a command of the same fundamentals that we teach at the high school level. If coaches want to run the same stuff that we do at the high school, I'll be happy to work with them, but my main concern is the fundamentals."

Q: Are you concerned about getting the late start on the summer season?

A: "It is a concern because everything is last minute. Families have already planned vacations and not everybody will be able to do everything we have planned. Next year we'll have a full summer, but this year it feels like half of a summer schedule.

"We were lucky to be able to get into the Norwood summer league in July, especially for the coaches because we'll get to know the girls and start the system. We'll also have individual shooting workouts throughout July and we've got the three-day mini-camp this week."

Q: What is your offensive philosophy?

A: "We'll play uptempo, get the ball upcourt and put pressure on the defense. If we can transition off of a rebound or made basket and get an easy bucket for ourselves, we will. When we recognize that there isn't an easy opportunity, we'll transition into our offense.

"Also, we hope to develop into good shooters from the outside. We want to attack the basket, but we also need to be able to score from outside. But, we will definitely push the ball."

Q: And your defensive philosophy?

A: "Be very aggressive. We'll adjust our defensive strategy according to our opponent, but I like to play man defense. No matter what defense we're in, we'll be aggressive and pressure the basketball. That will be the key point of emphasis. If we can force the other team to make uncomfortable decisions with the basketball, it will create more turnovers."

Q: How do you feel about being the new coach of the Lady Panthers?

A: "I am very excited to have the opportunity to build on what coach Mark Short and his staff have done in the past. Right now, I'm most excited about meeting the girls on the team and building player/coach relationships, which is a big reason why I'm a coach in the first place. If you don't want to build relationships and have an influence on the younger generation, I don't know why you'd want to coach."

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.