On Monday morning, current Activities Director Jeremy Way made the recommendation to hire Eric Burle to fill the vacancy. The move is expected to be approved by the school board during its regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday, July 10. In early June, Burle received his first varsity head coaching assignment when he was promoted to fill the baseball opening. He doesn't anticipate any problems rebuilding two programs at the same time. "Varsity basketball has always has been a goal of mine," said the 31-year-old Burle. "I am really excited about the opportunity." Way said along with the move, Burle will change teaching assignments as well. He will be an at-risk teacher in the high school. He previously was a physical education teacher at Warrior Ridge Elementary. "He's obviously been involved in our summer workouts and knows all of the kids," Way said. "Hopefully he will stabilize the program. "We need some stability, need somebody that knows the program, knows how things run." The boys basketball position was open for 31 days following Russell Vincent's departure. Vincent compiled a 17-34 record in two seasons directing the Warriors. He left to take a similar position at Parkway North, a Class 5 school in the Suburban South Conference. Burle becomes the fifth coach in the past seven years at Warrenton. "They need a stable philosophy, a consistent face will be worth a lot," he said. "I'm sure there are some kids who have fallen through the cracks with all the flux of coaching." Though he spent his first year in the school district as the freshmen boys basketball coach, Burle tried to spend as much time as possible on the varsity bench. He hopes the time spent then and this summer at summer workouts will speed up the transition of turning around the program's fortunes. Since a 21-win campaign during the 2002-03 season, the Warriors haven't won more than 10 games in a single season since. They went 10-16 in Vincent's first year at the helm, but fell back to 7-18 season last winter. Warrenton returns two starters - guard Andrew Laske and center Keith Terry - from last year's squad. The inside-out tandem combined to average 16.8 points and 6.9 rebounds. Reserve forward Ben Tappmeyer was the only other player to receive significant varsity minutes. The rest of the next year's roster will be comprised of players looking to make an impact for the first time. "I'm pretty excited about this," Burle said. "This year's group of seniors are pretty awesome. You got some guys who are competitors and are at every open gym, every shootout. They are very coachable kids, unique personalities and good leaders. I think that will rub off on some younger kids." Before coming to Warrenton, Burle previously coached basketball in the lower levels for two years each at St. Dominic and Duchesne, where he graduated from in 1995.