Boys’ basketball: James Wood hires Bates

Former Millbrook High School coach Ben Bates is returning to Frederick County to be James Wood High School’s new head boys’ basketball coach, James Wood announced in a news release on Tuesday.

Bates — who currently works as a support coordinator with Loudoun County government — is a former Clarke County High School player who graduated from Notre Dame Academy in Middleburg in 1999. He led Millbrook for one season. The Pioneers went 12-12 in 2016-17 before Bates resigned to take the lead assistant coaching position at St. James School in Hagerstown, Md.

Bates is replacing Tim Wygant, who was told in February his contract would not renewed after coaching 11 seasons. Wygant had a record of 76-151, including 7-15 in 2023-24.

In addition to coaching at St. James, Bates has also been a head JV boys’ basketball coach at Loudoun Valley since leaving Millbrook. Prior to arriving at Millbrook, Bates spent seven years as a girls’ high school basketball coach at DeKalb (Ill.) High School. In his first two years as head coach in 2010-11 and 2011-12, his teams went 52-10. DeKalb won conference, sectional and regional championships in the second year.

Bates returned to Virginia to coach the Skyline boys’ team with his older brother Jacob for the 2014-15 season, then coached the Clarke County’s JV boys’ team and the Johnson-Williams seventh-grade team in 2015-16.

“Coach Bates brings an energy, knowledge and passion for basketball that will fit well leading our boys’ basketball program,” said James Wood coordinator of student activities Brian Sullivan in the news release.