SOUTH WHITLEY – Dr. Rick Bragg has been hired as the new girls basketball coach at Whitko High School.

Bragg replaces Brandon Bradley, who resigned in April after six seasons in charge of the Wildcat program.

Bragg has a wealth of various experience coaching at the high school level over the past three decades. He began his coaching career at Columbia City, under Hall of Fame girls basketball coach Wayne Kreiger. Bragg coached junior varsity girls basketball, volleyball and girls track while at Columbia City.

Bragg has been the girls basketball and volleyball coach at Cherokee County outside of Atlanta. His 1996 girls basketball team there won the 4-A Georgia state championship and was ranked nationally. He has coached boys and girls basketball, volleyball, baseball and girls tennis at Cherokee County.

Bragg has put together a 99-50 coaching record on the varsity level and a 95-22 record on the junior varsity level on the hardwood. His volleyball record is 2601-128 and he was the Volleyball Coach of the Year seven times in Georgia.

Whitko won a program-best 21 games during the 2016-17 season and achieved the first-ever No. 1 ranking in the history of the program. The senior class, led by the top two scorers in program history in Aly Reiff and Brianna Cumberland, won 72 games.

Bradley, who won 88 games in his six seasons at Whitko, accepted the girls basketball coaching job at New Castle High School last week.