BREAKING SPORTS: Gabe Sveda Du Quoin's new hoops coach

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[The Du Quoin Community School District #300 Board of Education late Monday night promoted Gabe Sveda to varsity boys basketball coach.

Sveda-a mathematics instructor at the high school, five-year assistant and underclass basketball and football coach-takes over for the recently retired Mike Crews.

A Christopher native who holds degrees from Murray State University and Rend Lake College, Sveda also serves as an assistant football coach at DHS. This past season, he coached the sophomore basketball team after spending four years leading the freshmen.

He's been involved with the football program since coming to Du Quoin from Webber Township in the fall of 2005. He first taught and coached at Livingston County High School in Smithland, Ky and was head baseball coach at Webber, where he was also Clarence Gross' top assistant coach on the Trojans' Class A Sweet 16 hoops team of 2004-05.

Sveda now becomes the fourth coach who worked as an assistant to Crews to become a head coach in the River-to-River Conference's Mississippi Division.

Current mentors Brad Weathers (Nashville), Rich Williams (Sparta) and Rob Wright (Anna-Jonesboro) all started with the IBCA Hall-of-Famer.

A complete story on Sveda's hiring as Du Quoin's 28th coach in the now 101 year-old history of its basketball program will appear on this site Wednesday.