Just a week after veteran CHS Lady Cat coach Kevin Richardson announced his imminent departure from Canadian to take the helm of the Wall High School girls basketball program, Athletic Director Chris Koetting announced his successor: Farwell ISD girls basketball coach Aaron Marks.

Richardson leaves some big shoes to fill, but Marks’ record is also an impressive one. In his 12 years as a head basketball coach, Marks has had assignments in Hedley, Sterling City, and Whitharral, and for the last two years, with the Farwell Steers girls basketball program, where his team accumulated a 54 -14 record, highlighted by a 30-win season in 2019.

Marks spent four years in the college ranks as a student assistant at Tarleton State. His career accomplishments include having taken teams to the playoffs for nine consecutive years, being named district Coach of the Year four times, and winning the TABC Dean Weese Coach of the Year award.

Since 2015, Marks has organized and hosted the West Texas Basketball Coaching Clinic, featuring multiple national and state champion coaches.

“We are really excited that Aaron Marks will be our next Lady Cat basketball coach,” Koetting said when he announced the decision Friday. “We were extremely impressed by him in the interview process.”

The decision was made easier, he said, by conversations with other successful coaches, like Canyon’s Joe Lombard; Lubbock Christian University’s Steve Gomez; Andy Copley, former Canadian High School basketball coach—now heading the Follett High School basketball program—and; of course, departing Coach Richardson.

“All of them had very positive things to say about him as a coach and person,” Koetting said. “The things that we heard about Aaron is that he is student of the game, very passionate about coaching and building relationships with kids. He was also described as having outstanding character and being an extremely hard worker.”