By ERIC VICCARO
bnewssports@sbcglobal.net

New Saint Jo head boys basketball coach Brian Blank, pronounced “Blunk,” is part of a family coaching tree here in the state of Texas.
Blank’s father, Donald, won nearly 800 games in 42 seasons at Needville and Yoakum. Blank’s brother, Michael, coaches with both the football and basketball programs at Strait Jesuit, a Conference 6A school in Houston.
Uncle Kelvin Blank is an assistant football and pitching coach at Ennis.
“I hope kids enjoy being taught the way I was taught,” Blank said.
Blank said playing team basketball – especially on offense – is like artwork.
“I was an assistant coach under my dad for the past six years, and my brother is an assistant, so I got to coach with them,” Blank said. “There were some changes made (at Needville). I was ready to start my own program.”
Blank saw the opening for a boys’ basketball coach at Saint Jo on the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches’ website.
He interviewed in late May, and the Saint Jo Independent School District officially hired Blank in June.
Blank will be an assistant football coach, working with the running backs and secondary, and he will also be assisting with the Panthers’ track and field program. He replaces former coach Russell Endress.
In the classroom, Blank will teach seventh-grade Texas history, eighth-grade United States history and seventh-grade health. Read more on this story in the weekend edition of The Bowie News.

Saint Jo Panthers logo. (Logo provided by the Saint Jo Independent School District)