Mount Si High School’s new girls basketball coach is no stranger to the sport or her community.

After a lengthy search, the school named Twin Falls Middle School teacher and coach Megan Marson to replace longtime girls’ coach Dirk Hansen.

Hansen resigned at the end of the basketball season this year.

Greg Hart, Mount Si’s athletic director, said he was impressed with Marson’s ideas and enthusiasm for coaching.

“She’s got a really good reputation as an educator and as a coach,” he said.

Marson beat out several other candidates for the post.

“My first initial thought was that I was completely honored,” Marson said, adding that her hiring appears to have been well received.

“When [Hart] announced it, I was overwhelmed with e-mails,” she said.

“I’m really excited and I know the rest of the team, is too,” said Wildcat soon-to-be senior post Traci Nelson.

Marson, who is from Leavenworth in Chelan County, previously coached at the high school level as an assistant at Spokane’s Ferris High School. She was a head coach at two middle schools during her four years in the Snoqualmie Valley School District. Marson coached basketball and a number of other sports both this past school year at Twin Falls, and previously at Fall City’s Chief Kanim Middle School. She has worked with some of the girls while at the middle schools, which could help the transition.

One of those girls is junior-to-be Kassidy Maddux, who said she expects Marson to be an easy-going, but fair, coach.

“She’s really, really patient but she’s straightforward with you,” Maddux said. “She tells you what you’re doing wrong, and she helps you fix it.”

“She’s a good teacher,” mom Michelle Maddux said. “She teaches them well to where they’re successful on their own.”

Fellow team parent Carol Nelson agreed.

“She’s really positive with the girls, but firm, and she knows how to communicate with them at their level,” Nelson said. “They understand what she is trying to get out of them.”

Marson also competed for Leavenworth’s Cascade High School from 1997-2000, and that team made the state tournament all four years .

Marson says to look for a strong, defensive Mount Si team this winter.

“I think we can be pretty feisty defensively,” she said.

One thing that will be a plus is a strong team bond, which Marson will look to develop in the offseason.

Player Karly Thompson, also soon to be a senior, thinks that could be a key factor for the program as it adjusts.

“You’ll see a lot of chemistry and a lot of team ball and I think that will lead us to a lot of wins,” Thompson said.

Coaching at the high school level, especially in a tough conference like Kingco, will be a change for the new coach.

“It’ll be different; the intensity, the focus, the drive will be different,” she said.