POULSBO — In the same way former NK boys basketball coach Aaron Nations decided to return to his roots when he took a position in Everett this past spring, Derek Anderson, too, will be coming home in replacing him.

Anderson, a former Olympic College, South Kitsap and Bremerton High School basketball player, was officially hired Aug. 25 to take over the North Kitsap position.

“I’m really excited,” he said. “I believe in being a big part of the community. The South (Kitsap) communities were real close, and I’m just excited to be back in a community where everyone knows everyone else.”

Anderson, who currently lives in Las Vegas, Nev., is splitting his time between volunteer coaching for the UNLV Women’s team and a construction management job. He’s also working toward a bachelor’s degree in secondary level history, planning to finish that degree in the next year and a half so he can teach history at NKHS to go with his new basketball job.

Growing up in Port Orchard, Anderson attended Manchester Elementary, Cedar Heights Junior High School and then one year at South Kitsap High School, where he played basketball for his father and then-head coach of the Wolves, Darrell Anderson.

He transferred his junior year and played for Larry Gallagher’s Bremerton Knights for one season. But his family relocated and he finished his high school days at Simms High School in Montana, graduating in 1992.

He returned to Bremerton for college, playing one season for Olympic. However, his family moved to Minnesota and he decided to transfer to Div. 2 Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn., where he attended and played basketball until 1995.

After returning once more to Kitsap for three years, Anderson followed his family in a move to Las Vegas in 1998, where his first basketball coaching experience occurred as an assistant under his father at Trinity High School. He took over the program as head coach from 2002-2004, and then began helping at UNLV with the women’s program this past year.

At Trinity, his teams were never lower than third in league and qualified for state two years. Academic rigor was also a cornerstone of his program, his teams’ cumulative GPA never falling below a 3.25.

“Athletics are extracurricular for a reason,” he said. “Being a good citizen and scholastically being really involved are the most important things.” At NKHS, he is also a finalist for the NK Success Program Director position, which would allow him the chance to be at the school all day, all year, an opportunity he said he hopes to attain.

“The most important thing is staying involved with the kids,” he said. “It’s important to be a role model.”

His first year goals for the NK program include ensuring a smooth transition for all returning players, getting more involved in the community and “competing in every game.”

He and his wife Jasmine, along with their 5-year-old girl and 18-month-old boy, have a home near the Hood Canal Bridge, where they’ll move next week.