Moran to coach Saugus High boys basketball

When Paul Moran stepped down from the Swampscott High boys varsity basketball coach job after the 2008-09 season, even he didn’t realize his hiatus from the game was going to be quite as short-lived as it turned out to be.Moran has been hired as the new Saugus High boys basketball coach, replacing Mike Broderick, who stepped down after last season as well. Broderick still coaches the Saugus High football team.”It was just one of those things,” Moran said about getting back into the game before the next season rolled around.Moran, who runs camps and summer high school leagues, said the job opening caught his interest in the fall.”I wasn’t sure,” he said about applying. “I didn’t know if I wanted to get back into it.”Moran decided to jump.”Saugus is a great community with great athletes and a great tradition,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier.”Moran said the school has had some great coaches over the year and he’s fortunate to join a program with such a strong tradition.”It’s just a great school and a great place to have your kids grow up. Their high school last year sent kids all over the place,” he said.Saugus has had a tendency to lose a good number of students to private schools, something Moran knows has to change for the program to progress.”The biggest challenge in Saugus is going to be keeping the kids here,” he said, noting that the feeder programs in town are very good.Moran has enlisted several Saugonians to round out his coaching staff, including Mark Bertrand, who will work with the freshmen, Jim Perry and Mark Pelletier.Justin Fucile of Nahant, who played for former Swampscott High coach Brian Bagley and was an assistant of Moran’s before hooking up with the English High program, is the new Big Blue varsity coach.”I think he’s going to be an outstanding head coach,” Moran said about Fucile. “He teaches at the high school. I think the kids will play hard for him.”