POULSBO — From the ground up is where a program is built, luckily for North, the Vikings’ newly appointed head boys basketball coach Tony Chisholm has already been involved at the base level.

Chisholm will be NK’s third new head coach in four years as he replaces Derek Anderson. The North Kitsap School District announced the decision May 8.

Regardless of his technically “new” post, Chisholm carries the consistency of having been a focal point in North Kitsap athletics for more than a decade. Head coach of both boys and girls basketball at Kingston Junior High since 1993, he helped teach the game to many of the purple and gold players he will be coaching next year.

“I’ve earned the respect of a lot of these kids, and I think that’s going to make it a lot easier for me to implement my plan,” Chisholm said, noting that he will be starting at ground level to build the North program. “And the bottom line is I respect them, too. That mutual respect is huge.”

The first steps Chisholm said he wants to take into early summer are the small steps of communicated with all the Vikings and collecting everybody under the same focus. Though plans for summer ball have not yet been made, the Viking gym surely will not be quiet.

“I’m gonna shock them right away. They’re gonna get the offense out of their mind and put the defense up front,” Chisholm said of his strategy. “If they want to have success, they’ve got to follow the leader, and I’m gonna lead by the right example which is defense, it’s all about defense.”

Chisholm’s defensive-mindedness at KJH has produced success in the form of three combined basketball league championships and three straight undefeated seasons with the Lady Cavs — a feat which is ongoing at KJH.

At the heart of it all is the truth of basketball, Chisholm said, defense.

Changing ranks and stepping into the high pressure situation in the coach’s chair of a 4A boys basketball team has the potential to throw some new coaches on the defensive with a myriad of additional responsibilities and stress that weigh them down. But even stepping into his first-ever head coaching spot on the 4A level, Chisholm has no fear.

“I’m not intimidated at all, I go in with no fear,” he said. “It’s not new water because the game never changes.”

With 12 years of junior high head coaching experience mixed with three years of assistant coaching experience with the Lady Vikings in 1991-93, Chisholm has become a role model for North Kitsap youth.

That focus won’t change as Chisholm consistently reiterates, “It’s all about the kids.”

“I’m not a Harry Potter, I can’t just go ‘poof’ and things are all better,” Chisholm said. “I’m just one man who has one common goal to compete and give the kids a positive environment and positive experience that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”