The Permian boys basketball team will have a familiar face on the sidelines as its new head coach.
Ector County ISD Executive Director of Athletics Tracey Borchardt confirmed Friday that Steven Flores was selected as the next head coach of the Panthers.
Flores was an assistant at Permian under previous head coach Tim Thomas for four seasons. Thomas was named the head coach at Fort Worth Southwest back in May.
“He’s just very well versed in the game of basketball,” Borchardt said of Flores. “And being under Coach Thomas, it was a smooth transition. He just came to the table with some great ideas moving forward and continuing with the program.”
“Hopefully with what he puts in the place, the program would continue to get better. We felt that he was the right selection at the right time.”
Flores spent four seasons as an assistant coach under Thomas. He took a year off from coaching in 2019-2020 before returning to the sidelines this past season.
Prior to his time with the Panthers, Flores led Kermit’s boys basketball program from 2012 to 2016, compiling a record of 102-26 in his four seasons as head coach. That included a run of three straight appearances in the Class 3A regional quarterfinals from 2014 through 2016.
He spent 10 years total coaching the Yellowjackets.
Flores said that he’s appreciative of the opportunity to lead a Panthers program that has also had its own strong run of success in recent years.
Permian made six straight playoff appearances, won three District 2-6A titles and had consecutive trips to the Region I-6A Tournament in the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.
Permian finished the 2020-21 season at 19-6 overall and secured a bi-district title.
“I’m ecstatic as I could be to take over,” Flores said. “I think it’s the best job in basketball in West Texas. It feels good to take over a program that we’ve established here at Permian.”
Flores added that one of his areas of focus was to be a disciplined team both on and off the court.
He said Thomas showed him a lot about building a program up and working together to get the most out of a team.
“The most important thing I learned from him is how to build relationships with kids,” he said. “I thought I knew how and did a great job, but seeing how he builds the kids up and gets them to practice hard and play hard day in and day out, that’s the one thing that amazed me.”
Flores added that having the guidance of Drew Coffman has also helped him in becoming a better coach. Coffman was the head coach at Decatur before being newly hired as the head coach at Haslet Eaton.
Now that Flores is in charge of the Panthers, he wants to continue building on the strong base the team has created over the last six seasons.
“We’ve had such great success here and we’re going to continue to keep winning,” Flores said. “We want to win district titles, regional titles and make it to San Antonio. Those are our three goals year in and year out.”
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