After winning districts last year, longtime Boys´ Head Coach Mike Lovelace stepped down to spend more time with his family. Now, former Junior-Varsity Head Coach Jon-Lamar Hamilton steps into the role as just the second Head Coach for the Skyline program in the 2023-2024 season.
Hamilton was named the Varsity Head Coach on June 1, 2023. “When I received the call from the [Athletic Director] Mr. Criswell, I had so many different emotions flooding me at once,¨ says Hamilton. “I felt grateful, relieved, excited, and eager, but the very first thing that came to mind was thankful, thankful to those who helped me along my journey. No way I could have gotten here alone.”
Basketball has always been a big part of Hamilton’s life, ever since he began as a player and stepped into a coaching role. “I can’t say [being a varsity head coach] was always a goal of mine,” says Hamilton. “I just always knew after my playing days were over I wanted to give back to the game, and help players develop in their journeys throughout basketball and life.”
One of the main focus points for Hamilton is making players better people off and on the court. “Coach Hamilton has great relationships with the players,” says Lovelace. “He really gets to know them as people and works really hard in all aspects of their game. He’s extremely knowledgeable about basketball…He is ready for this job and is very excited to be here.”
The Skyline culture is very important for the new head coach. ¨It means a lot to me,¨ said Hamilton. ¨I was an assistant varsity coach at Skyline for the very first varsity basketball team, to come full circle to being named the Varsity head coach is special. Skyline will forever be the school that gave me my first opportunity to be a Varsity basketball coach, I will forever be grateful for that.¨
Hamilton has a great influence on the players he works with. ¨They respect him,” says player Calvin Williams (’26). “Everyone is ready to go to battle for him. Everyone wants to win.”
The team is ready to play the 2023-2024 season under Hamilton. “He just keeps making the kids better and I think we are going to see a lot of improvement as the year goes on,” says Lovelace.
The Eagles are ready for the next chapter in the Skyline Basketball program and are focused on the future with the new season coming up soon. “Our mindset has been to focus on the start to this new chapter and to begin to write our own story,” says Hamilton.
The new head coach is having a great impact on the program. “Coach Hamilton is a very good motivator,” says Williams. “He is very good at getting players to play hard… he is a very defensive-minded coach which I would say is always a strength. He is always going to teach great man-to-man principles. He will go into zone when he needs to. On offense, he is always drawing out plays that work for us.¨
Everyone in the program is excited for the new season under Hamilton. ¨He pushes us hard in practice and sets a good example and standard for how the team should act,¨ says player Owen Peterson (’26).
The whole program is excited and hyped to begin the new season. ¨We are going at it as a collective and with an understanding that the team comes first,” says Hamilton. “The players have been putting in a lot of work this offseason to get ready for the season… I’m excited for the players to be able to put their off-season work into game action.”
