Curran To Lead Bobcats Boys Basketball

[Byron Nelson Booster]

DENISON, TX - Scott Curran has accepted the position of head basketball coach at Byron Nelson High School. That means Curran will be leaving Denison at the end of this school year. The Northwest ISD School Board approved the hire this week. Curran has spent the past five years in denison and has resurrected the program from the bottom all the way to consecutive seasons with at least one playoff victory. Curran says he will miss his players and the people in Denison, but he's ready to start up a new program.

The Denison Yellow Jackets boys basketball team just finished up a great season, one which saw the Jackets get to the second round of the playoffs.

When it comes to turning around basketball programs, Scott Curran has been successful at his last two jobs. And that success has allowed Curran to embrace the challenge of beginning a program from scratch.

After leading Denison for the last half-decade, Curran accepted the offer to become the head boys basketball coach at Byron Nelson High School.


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"It was probably the hardest decision I've made," Curran said. "Obviously starting from the ground up is going to be challenging and that's what coaches live for. When I came to Denison it was a challenge."

Nelson will begin varsity competition for the first time -- most likely as a Class 4A program. Curran starts with two ninth-grade and a 10-grade team. The program won't have any seniors until the 2011-12 school year.

In five seasons at Denison, Curran went 81-77 and led the Yellow Jackets to the playoffs each of the last three years -- compiling a 61-37 mark during that span.

Denison finished 21-11 and fourth in District 9-4A this past season, advancing to the second round of the playoffs for the third straight year. The program had not made that many consecutive postseason appearances in more than two decades.

"As a coach you're told to always leave a program better than you found it and I think I've done that here," Curran said.

Denison won at least one playoff game each time, believed to be a first for the program. The Yellow Jackets have never advanced to the third round.

In its most recent trip to the playoffs, Denison defeated Carrollton Newman Smith, which entered the postseason ranked No. 4 in the state, before losing to state runner-up Dallas Kimball.

"It's something I'll never forget," Curran said about his final victory at the school. "The special thing about that win was the kids never doubted we would win that game."

The unforgiving mercy of the bracket played a part in Denison's final fate twice, losing to state runner-up Fort Worth Dunbar in 2007 as well.

"Without good players you don't have good coaches. There's a little luck involved; a little bit of everything," Curran said. "Without those guys, the Stanley Morrisons, the Shaylon Moores, the T.J. Taylors, the Coleman Fursts, then I probably don't have a shot at the Byron Nelson job. I owe a lot to those guys."

Curran arrived before the 2004-05 season and improved on a program that won seven games and went winless district play in the year prior to his arrival. He was the third head coach in three years and the Yellow Jackets improved their victory total in each of Curran's first three seasons.

Before arriving at Denison, Curran was the head coach at Fort Worth Brewer for four seasons and spent a year leading the program at Kennedale.

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