WOODLAWN — Woodlawn wasted little time filling its vacant boys basketball head coaching position, hiring someone very familiar with the program.

At Tuesday night’s board meeting, Brian Gamber was hired as the Cardinals’ next boys basketball head coach. It’s a post Gamber previously held for four seasons from 2016-17 to 2019-20, before leaving to take over as men’s basketball coach at Rend Lake College, where he had been an all-conference player.

During those four seasons, Woodlawn was 96-34 with three regional championships and one sectional title. Two key members of Gamber’s teams will be joining him on staff–Blake McKay and Race Rynski. Gamber’s staff will also include another Cardinal standout, Doug Junkins, who played for Shane Witzel, as well as Mt. Vernon’s all-time wins leader, Doug Creel.

Gamber replaces Luke Cooper, who was hired two weeks ago as the new head coach at Mt. Vernon. Cooper replaced Tim Holloway, who resigned. Gamber and Creel both were assistants under Holloway.