Timpview hires former BYU guard to coach basketball

Former BYU guard Kevin Santiago has been hired as the boys' basketball coach at Timpview High School.

Santiago, who had been coaching the school's sophomore team, lacked the high school coaching experience of some candidates, Timpview athletic director Al Poland said. But Santiago impressed the school with his energy and plan to get Timpview more involved with summer AAU basketball.

"Watching the model [Quincy Lewis] has put together at Lone Peak, there were a lot of people questioning whether we were ever going to be able to close any kind of gaps unless we looked at what successful people were doing," Poland said.

Developing players through summer basketball programs was an element Timpview previously had been missing, he said.

"We have not been involved in AAU at all as a team," Poland said. "There was a sense that we want to develop our kids. We want a place for all of our kids to be able to go and stay heavily involved and get better.

"There was this sense that Timpview was kind of resting on its laurels so to speak while other people around us were getting better. There's a huge expectation from the community that Timpview be kind of a leader, and we didn't feel like we were being a leader."

Santiago, a graduate of Timpview rival Provo High, played at BYU from 1988 to 1990. He replaces longtime coach Perry Wildeboer, who resigned earlier this year.

— Aaron Falk

Twitter: @aaronfalk —