A few weeks after first year coach Justin Johnson abruptly resigned after a dismal 3-18 campaign, Mona Shores has a new man leading the charge in Brad Kurth.

Kurth is a familiar face, as he led the Mona Shores girls program for 11 seasons from 2006-2018. Under his watch, the Sailors won 6 conference titles, 4 district titles and had a regional finals appearance. He also coached 2017 Miss Basketball winner Jordan Walker, the older sister of Muskegon Big Reds standout Jarvis Walker. Kurth has spent the last 2 seasons as an assistant for Ferris State’s girls basketball.

Mona Shores Athletic Director Todd Conrad said that 4 candidates were interviewed for the position.

“Ultimately it came down to Coach Kurth’s experience running a program for over 10 years, being in the building and being a teacher in the building and having that ability to have relationships with his high school basketball players in the hallways and having them in classes, it’s really exactly what you need for someone to have a successful program.” Conrad said

When asked why he took the job, Kurth stated that “I could have a lot of fun being an assistant in college women’s basketball, but I know there is no place I could make more of a difference than with this program at Mona Shores.”

The Sailors have had issues with stability in their basketball program, as Kurth follows Nick Bronsema, Gene Gifford, Doug Burse, David Chana and Justin Johnson as Mona Shores 6th coach in the past 8 years. However, Kurth says he plans to be around for the long haul, saying “There is a fact of life that you don’t know what tomorrow brings, but the whole plan is that I’m sticking around, there will be a day when I retire but that’s not in my near future plans at all.”

Kurth also talked about falling in love with the process and his definition of that is hard work, working together, working the right way, winning and losing with class and outworking everyone.

It will be quite a feat if Kurth can turn around the boys program at Mona Shores, but he has proven over the years he can win.