Over the years, Ed Seidick has always admired the work of his friend and former girls' basketball coach Dave Troxell at Catasauqua.

When Troxell recently stepped down as head coach to accept the school's athletic director's position, Seidick believed it was time to make a move in conjunction with his friend's latest ascent.

After being involved with the Northampton High School girls' program since 1992 and serving as a varsity assistant the past two seasons, Seidick was recently approved as the new head girls' basketball coach at a school board meeting.

Troxell returned to the bench last winter after a four-year hiatus and his team had an overall 2-20 record. He was named athletic director this past summer after Tom Moll left to take the same position at Nazareth.

Seidick, who worked closely with Northampton head coach Jeff Jacksits over the past two years, saw Troxell's promotion as a chance for his own upgrade.

"When I heard about Dave (Troxell) taking the (athletic director) job, I knew it would be a good time for me to apply for the girls' job," offered Seidick. "I talked to Jeff (Jacksits) about it at length, and he told me to go for it.

"It was a very difficult decision as I loved working for Jeff. He (Jacksits) is not only a good coach, but also a better person. In the big scheme of things, I knew I wanted to try it (being a head coach) someday."

His new boss certainly appreciates his new successor.

"Ed comes to Catasauqua from a very successful girls basketball program in Northampton under head coach Jeff Jacksits, a 1982 Catasauqua graduate," Troxell said in a news release. "Ed has displayed enthusiasm for coaching girls at Northampton, and he has been a major influence on the players that he's coach. He has a good working knowledge of the game of basketball and is excellent in helping to develop players to their fullest potential. We are looking for Ed to continue to develop our Catasauqua girls' basketball program in all facets and to bring positive experiences for our players."

Seidick, who is a special education teacher at Northampton, appears ready to take his new team to the next step. He will rely on seniors Shiloh Sziy and Amarys Moten to help set the bar.

"There's a draw to starting from scratch with a program," referred Seidick to the program's recent lack of success. "But this program really isn't entirely starting from scratch. When I saw what Dave (Troxell) did with them last summer as opposed to the previous summer, it was night and day.

"They had a different attitude and more fight. There is talent here and some young talent coming up.

"I would like the program to be successful right away and win 11 or 12 games and qualify for districts. I really think we can get the program back to where it was six or seven year ago."

Seidick, who lives in Lehigh Township, began his high school career at Whitehall and then transferred to Allentown Central Catholic. He played baseball and basketball there and later played baseball for a year at Kutztown University before an injury ended his career.

While at Central Catholic, Seidick began coaching basketball at the CYO level, and his was an entry that lasted numerous years. After he graduated from Kutztown, Seidick began coaching baseball at Central Catholic and continued coaching basketball.

Seidick also had a four-year coaching stint as a varsity assistant/JV coach in Baltimore, where he and his wife spent four years before they moved back to the Lehigh Valley. It was then that Seidick began his career at Northampton.

In his new post, he plans to have Janice Kovacs, who was an assistant with Troxell back in the Roughies' heydays at the top of the Colonial League, to run the middle school program, and Emily Beaky, who has directed successful programs in Lehigh Township, to guide the JV program.

Seidick plans to install a system in which it would involve 100 percent of varsity, 75 percent of the JV, and 50 percent of the middle school. He will model it after Jacksits' system.

"Our main goal is to have success at the varsity level," said Seidick. "We will also try to keep the Catty summer league going as it is good competition. We will also be playing in Sportsfest and other major leagues and tournaments.

"I also encourage our girls to play other sports as well, but we need to be active in the summer. That's how we will improve. We begin open gyms this week, and we'll be busy.

"I want our girls to be active, so they don't get sick of me."

Chances are Seidick and his team will take advantage of every opportunity.