Coach Harry Jenkins

"I'm ready for the season to start," the basketball coach states. It's that time of year, so that's typical for a basketball coach to be ready. But just a few months ago, Harry Jenkins might have wondered if he would ever speak those words again.

The 25-year Fox Chapel coach had a heart attack in August, and underwent several medical procedures to correct the problem. Getting back on the court would mean modifying his diet and exercising. "It was quite a change in my life, a warning to clean up my act, so to speak," Harry says.

He started teaching again in October and is ready to go. "I feel pretty good right now and have some stamina," Jenkins notes. He is coaching and taking advantage of the new rule change that lets coaches walk the sidelines in the coaching box, for the first time in 36 years. And he is enthusiastic about this squad.

"It'll be exciting. I'm looking forward to working with this team," Jenkins says. "They practice hard. They listen to us. They want to play as well as they can. They're always working in practice. You can see them when you're talking. They're listening intently to what you're saying."

The Foxes lose eight seniors from last year's team, which missed the playoffs by one game. "We're a very young team this year, one letterman, no starters back from last year. We have a young team who is into it." The coach believes "…they want to go out and show everybody that they deserve the playing time they are going to get and they are going to work their tails off, so we're excited as coaches."

The Foxes will have to work those tails off to compete in their new conference. The old section meant playing against teams like Woodland Hills. They played a style of basketball that may be a little different than the style in the new section, which includes North Allegheny, North Hills, Shaler, Seneca Valley, New Castle, and Butler.

"The section is tough," but Harry says, "I'm looking forward to the change. I think that may help us all the way around." What else may help the Foxes and who are the players that make up the team? Coach Jenkins explains, as well as discusses how the heart attack plays in all this, in his video interview found here.