Scott Silva has been selected as the new head coach of the girls basketball program at Englewood High School.

Silva, an Englewood Middle School teacher, played the game in high school and college plus he has coaching experience in summer basketball camps. He was assistant coach with the Pirates’ boys basketball team for three years.

The Pirates’ girls basketball program has been struggling for the last few years. The problems including changing coaches in the middle of the 2007-08 season plus the lack of eligible players, forcing the team to cancel the second half of the schedule last season.

Silva said he is aware of the challenges and plans to take a number of small steps in an effort to rebuild interest and enthusiasm about girls basketball at Englewood High School.

“We plan a meeting to see how many girls intend to play basketball for the Pirates next season,” the new coach said. “I won’t know what level teams we will have next season until we determine how many girls want to join us. I am encouraged for the future because there are several eighth-grade girls who have told me they want to play basketball for Englewood next season as ninth-graders.”

He noted that, like all coaches, he will bring a different approach to practice and to the game than what the team saw in past seasons.

The coach also said he plans to hold open, voluntary gym sessions during the summer in which the focus will be shoot-arounds and conditioning. He said he also is looking into whether or not it will be possible to attend one or two of the team basketball camps during the summer.

Silva was born in Vermont and raised in the state of New York. He played basketball all four years in high school. After graduation, he accepted a scholarship to play basketball for four years at the State University of New York-Potsdam.

He earned his bachelor’s degree, then worked at a number of jobs before moving to Colorado in 1995. He said he made the move to play golf and ski.

He got married and the couple had a son, so he made a career change.

He said he had always wanted to be a teacher because he loves to work with kids.

So, he set out to do what it took to become an educator by earning his master’s degree in secondary language arts from the University of Phoenix. Then, five years ago, was hired to teach middle school classes in Englewood.