Paul Long has resigned as Temp High's boys basketball coach.
Citing "family reasons," Long said he grew weary of the commute from North Scottsdale and of missing his three kids' activities most nights for half of the year.
"I loved the administration," he said Thursday night. "I got to see a lot of my family and kids in the year away (from coaching in 2011). The payoff of coaching was nice but not worth missing my kids."
The 2012-2013 season was Long's only year as the Tempe coach. He previously coached Horizon's boys basketball team for four years before he was fired after a 16-11 season and state quarterfinals appearance.
Before Horizon, he was at Phoenix Trevor Browne for 13 years. He was also a finalist for the Chaparral job last summer before being hired by Tempe.
With a promising collection of sophomores and juniors, Tempe was 13-5 in power rankings games this season but finished 25th in Division II, one spot out of the playoff picture.
Long replaced Bryan Snyder at Tempe last summer, and though he will continue teaching at Horizon, he said there's very little interest in pursuing any other coaching opportunities at this time.
Long was the third boys basketball coach to resign on Thursday, following John Burns (Basha) and Mike Ellsworth (Chandler).
Mark Heller is the East Valley Tribune sports editor. He can be reached at mheller@evtrib.com or (480) 898-6576.
