West Salem is the third head-coaching job for Justin Duke, who coached at Scio and Wilsonville. (Photo by Greg Artman)

For the last 10 seasons, coach Justin Duke successfully carried the torch for Wilsonville girls basketball, one of the state's top 5A programs.

But after a decade of 50-minute commutes from his home in Albany, Duke has found a new challenge closer to home. He has been hired as the coach at 6A West Salem, where he replaces Katie Singleton.

“It was definitely hard to say goodbye to Wilsonville,” said Duke, who went 177-80 with two state semifinal appearances with the Wildcats. “The community and program means a lot to me. I've been fortunate enough to make it work, but I don't miss the drive.”

It is the third head coaching job for Duke. He went 79-37 in four seasons at Scio (2011-15), leading the Loggers to a school-record 27 wins and a 2A runner-up finish in 2012. At Wilsonville, he followed Cindy Anderson, whose 18-year tenure (1997-2015) included 302 wins and state titles in 2001 and 2002.

“When I first started to make the commute, we weren't quite sure where we were going to end up planting some roots,” Duke said. “My family has been supportive for 10 years.”

Duke and his wife, Beth, have three children: daughters Sloane (11) and Tatum (5) and son Bryant (8).

“They're getting older and starting to do stuff,” Duke said. “I was getting home a little too late in the evening. So it was either move up that way, or eventually find something. And this opportunity came up.”

Duke said his family has “a lot of connections” to the Salem area. His wife is from Salem, and her brother, Luke Emanuel, is the owner and president of Salem's new West Coast League baseball team, the Marion Berries.

Singleton stepped down as West Salem's coach after going 122-74 with four conference titles in eight seasons. The Titans went 13-12 last season, sharing the Central Valley Conference title with South Salem, and lost at Jesuit in the first round of the 6A playoffs. They won outright conference titles the three previous years.

“It's a program that I've always had a lot of respect for and watched from afar,” said Duke, whose Wilsonville team lost to West Salem 70-56 in the POA Holiday Classic last season.

Duke said that moving up to 6A wasn't a motivating factor in his decision.

“It was more just the opportunity and where it was,” he said. “I think that West Salem can be a real special place. There are so many good opportunities with the youth programs in Salem and the partnership with some of the facilities, to really grow that.”

West Salem returns three starters from last season in seniors Emma Zuniga, Samantha Griffin and Johi Diaz. Zuniga, a 5-foot-10 forward, was the conference player of the year last season.

“She can step outside and shoot it, and drive to the basket,” Duke said. “ But she plays inside, as well. She's tough. She'll play in college.”

The Titans lost a key player when senior Chica Casas, a first-team all-conference pick, transferred to South Salem. But Duke said the roster is stocked with talent.

“I think we're going to be tough next year,” he said. “We've got a lot of girls with a lot of length. It seems like everybody is 5-8 to 5-10. We don't really have a true post kid. We don't have the same size that we did at Wilsonville.”

West Salem played more than 20 games in summer league, winning all but four. The Titans won two of three games against 5A semifinalist Silverton and defeated 4A champion Stayton. Their losses came against Silverton, West Albany, South Albany and Union, Washington's reigning 4A champion.

Duke's lead assistant is Jason Alexander, who assisted at Sprague last season but previously coached under Singleton at West Salem.

Wilsonville filled its vacancy by promoting Tyler VanAcker, Duke's assistant for the past eight seasons. Ed Baran, Wilsonville's JV coach in recent seasons, was hired as the coach at 4A Estacada.