ROXANA - Legendary girls' basketball coach Mike Arbuthnot is coming home. Coach Arbuthnot has agreed to take the reigns as the head basketball coach for Roxana High School for the 2024-2025 season.
He recently announced his departure from Civic Memorial High School as head girls coach after a tremendous run. Arbuthnot will close in on 500 wins as a coach as he accepts the Roxana job. He has a career record of 438 wins and 290 losses and was a prior coach at Roxana.
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Roxana Athletic Director Mark Briggs said: "We are proud to announce Mike Arbuthnot at our new head girls basketball coach. Welcome back home, Mike."
Arbuthnot said he was very thankful to make a return back to Roxana as a coach.
"I was treated so well down there for 33 years," he said. "I taught and coached at Roxana. It is a special place and I look forward to going to work with the kids and the administration to keep building that program."
Prior Coach Addaya Moore has accepted a head girls coach position at Mascoutah for next season. Coach Arbuthnot said Coach Moore did an excellent job. The Shells girls won 18 games this past season.
Coach Arbuthnot said one of the first things he wants to work on is building a strong feeder system for the Roxana girls team from the middle and elementary range and also have a solid summer program. Coach Arbuthnot believes the summer is very important for the development of a girls basketball team.
Arbuthnot was once a football coach, head baseball coach and softball coach in addition to coaching basketball.
He said his departure worked out perfectly because he had such strong assistant coaches. Arbuthnot said he plans to bring former Civic Memorial star Anna Hall with him to Roxana as an assistant.
Arbuthnot owns his own lawn service but said he is certified to teach driver's education and he may offer to do that if there are any needs at Roxana.
Coach Arbuthnot wants to make the Roxana better and build a solid future with it. He and Athletic Director Briggs worked together there for 15 years and are still good friends. "He (Mark Briggs) and the other administration are one of the key reasons I decided to come back," he added.
The new Roxana girls coach said overall he was "honored" to come back.
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