{"id":259671,"date":"2026-05-05T20:14:24","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/259671\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T20:14:24","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T20:14:24","slug":"st-petersburg-catholic-fl-hires-new-boys-basketball-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/259671\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg Catholic (FL) hires new boys basketball coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>St. Petersburg (FL) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/high-school\/st-petersburg-catholic-saint-petersburg-fl-23120\/basketball\/2025\/schedule\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">St. Petersburg Catholic<\/a> has seen its football program return to its winning ways this past 2025 season under the watch of first-year head coach Jesse Chinchar and now are looking to do the same with boys basketball. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/join\/?utm_source=publisher&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=subscriber_referral&amp;ref=1040443\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Barons\u2019 athletic department <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SpcAthletics\/status\/2050311076059746419?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced via social media<\/a> the hiring of St. Petersburg (FL) High School head coach Chris Blackwell as the program\u2019s new lead man. Blackwell has coached in the Tampa Bay area over around 25 years, winning over 600-plus games, reaching seven Final Fours and two state championship game appearances. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey were really persistent and wanted me there,\u201d Blackwell said to the Tampa Bay Beacon\u2019s Bob Putnam. \u201cThey want to build a program, and it\u2019s exciting to see if I can replicate what I did at St. Petersburg over there. <\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are thrilled to officially announce Chris Blackwell as our new Boys Basketball Head Coach!<\/p>\n<p>With over 600 wins, 7 Final Fours, and 2 State Championship appearances across 25 years of coaching, his pedigree speaks for itself. <\/p>\n<p>Welcome to the Baron family, Coach! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/GoldStandard?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">#GoldStandard<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lRYiLVIkaR\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/lRYiLVIkaR<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 SPC Athletics (@SpcAthletics) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SpcAthletics\/status\/2050311076059746419?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>St. Petersburg Catholic hasn\u2019t had a winning season since the 2020-2021 campaign when the Barons went 17-9 and now with Blackwell, who led the Green Devils to 20 straight winning seasons dating back to the mid-2000s. <\/p>\n<p>Per <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tbnweekly.com\/sports\/article_02e13d1b-daf9-45f3-a9ed-ba1f8aad0267.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Putnam\u2019s report<\/a>, it doesn\u2019t sound like Blackwell is heading to St. Petersburg Catholic alone as 2028 four-star shooting guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/rivals\/nijuan-harris-250835\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nijuan Harris<\/a> is one of three players from the Green Devils that\u2019s planning to enroll and play for the Barons. St. Petersburg went 20-10 last season and Harris was one of the state\u2019s leading scorers at 22.7 points per game. <\/p>\n<p>The Barons this past season with a 10-16 record and finished ranked No. 548 in the\u00a0final 2025 Florida High School Boys Basketball Massey Rankings.<\/p>\n<p>How to Follow Florida High School Boys Basketball<\/p>\n<p>For Florida high school boys basketball fans looking to keep up with scores around the state, staying updated on the action is now easier than ever with the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.on3.com\/high-school\/scores\/football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rivals High School Scoreboard<\/a>. This comprehensive resource provides real-time updates and final scores from across the Sunshine State, ensuring you never miss a moment of the high school hops action throughout the season. From nail-biting finishes to dominant performances, the Rivals High School Scoreboard is your one-stop destination for tracking all the hardwood excitement across the state.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg (FL) St. Petersburg Catholic has seen its football program return to its winning ways this past&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":259672,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[47,202,204,203,199,112413,201,200],"class_list":["post-259671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-fl","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-catholic-barons-saint-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}