New Burroughs High boys’ basketball coach Jason Weatherall introduced himself to prospective Bears Thursday evening in a Town hall style meeting at Dolores Huerta Middle School.
Weatherall, who was recently selected to take over the program, comes to Burroughs from St. Francis High in La Canada Flintridge, where he spent 10 years as an assistant.
“Playing sports at any level always (provides) great memories for people,” Weatherall said. “Thinking back on your playing days is always an amazing feeling, so I want to help them create lasting positive memories and those lasting positive memories are going to come through some good times, they’re going to come through bad times, but they are going to come during time that they’ve spent together.”
Weatherall, who is also a physical education teacher and athletic director St. Philip the Apostle School in Pasadena, said the timing was right to make the jump to becoming a head coach.
The upcoming school year will be the fourth consecutive that Burroughs has had a new boys basketball coach.
“Over the course of the years, I’ve seen the job open. I’ve had my eye on it,” said Weatherall, who has a master’s degree in athletic administration. “I have heard nothing but great things about the kids and the community and the families in Burbank. Having seen it open a few times and I didn’t go for it, seeing it this last time I said it’s got to be for me.”
Weatherall, 41, also has coaching experience at East Los Angeles College, Occidental College and Maranatha High School.
“Ten years at St. Francis have been 10 of my most rewarding years. Each stop along the way you’ve learned something,” Weatherall said. “To spend 10 years in one place and really learn the ins and outs of how to build a community and how to communicate throughout your entire program, that’s been super hands on. I am grateful to (St. Francis coach) Todd Wolson for the opportunity to be with him and see how he put a program together.
“He gave me opportunities to run in my own lane and experiment with things throughout the program. It was really training. It was on the job training that has put me in a position that I now truly feel I am ready to take that next step.”
After Burroughs struggled with a 5-22 overall record, 0-8 in the Pacific League, Weatherall said he knows of the challenges that lie ahead.
“Looking at how our program was last year, we have to come in and we’ve got to work,” he said. “Being in the Mission League and being in a perennial league in the country, it was a lot of on-the-job training that you don’t get in other situations. It lent me the opportunity to step in at a school and do my best to prepare young men to obviously take care of stuff off the court, but also to step on the court and be prepared and be ready to compete.”
