Shamar Hill has been welcomed to Richwoods with winning.

The new Knights girls basketball coach wrapped up June by guiding Richwoods to a 5-1 mark in his first week on the job. Hill was announced as Todd Hursey’s successor on June 27, replacing the 12-season coach who won 271 games and the 2018 Class 3A state championship.

“I’m excited about this group that I have,” said Hill, whose team went 2-0 at the Illinois Central College summer league last Wednesday, then 3-1 at the Bradley team camp on July 1. “After those two games at the ICC league, I (saw) that they’re starting to adjust to like my coaching style. I feel like we’re getting better.”

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Hill is no stranger to the Peoria-area basketball scene. He helped lead Peoria High to the 2012 3A state title, then played at ICC and Robert Morris-Peoria.

The 2012 Peoria High grad then coached under Meechie Edwards at his alma mater before joining Layne Langholf’s girls staff at Peoria Notre Dame. Hill currently serves as the Midwest Prospect Academy's assistant director of player development, while acting as the head coach for the MidPro Academy's 14U and 15U travel basketball teams.

“This is a huge job that I’m looking forward to,” Hill said of taking over the iconic Richwoods program. “I’m truly blessed for this opportunity. This is one of the best programs in the state. I know that going into it when I applied for the job, when I was interviewing for the job. I knew how big this job was and I just knew how big basketball was at this school.”

Like many Peoria High products, Hill will focus on defense. He says the hard-nosed style with a mix of a fast, up-tempo pace taught by his former high school coach Dan Ruffin will be reflected in how Richwoods plays. He also wants to build constructive coach-player relationships, so he can push them in a positive way.

“They’re starting to buy in now to the defensive schemes,” Hill said.

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Richwoods has seven state trophies and nine trips to the state finals overall since 1980. Its 27 regional championships are among the top 10 statewide.

The Knights were 17-13 last season, losing a dozen of those games to state-ranked teams. All-Big 12 Conference players Kamryn Heider (first team) and Braniyah Hickman (second team) have both played all summer with the Knights.

Adam Duvall is a Journal Star sports reporter. Email him at aduvall@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @AdamDuvall.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Meet new Richwoods girls basketball coach Shamar Hill