Ellsworth High School athletic director Jay Brown was named the interim boys basketball coach at the school Monday, replacing Dan Clifford.

Clifford left earlier this month to become the athletic director at Sumner Memorial High School of East Sullivan and the three middle schools in School Union 96.

“I’m excited he’s willing to do it for one year,” said Ellsworth Superintendent of Schools Frank Hackett, who approached Brown about taking the job on an interim basis.

“He has a strong knowledge of the game, he has good [coaching] experience, he has a true concern for the athletes, and he knows them,” said Hackett. “That will make the transition a lot easier on the student-athletes.”

Hackett said it’s a “tough time of the year to go out and look for a [permanent] coach” and he indicated that the applicant pool was small.

“Most people don’t want to leave this time of year,” said Hackett. “It’s not that we didn’t have good people [apply]. We just didn’t have the depth we needed to make a good decision for the long term of the program.”

Tryouts and practices for high school winter sports began Monday.

Hackett said the process to name a permanent coach will continue in the spring.

Brown coached the Schenck High School girls basketball team of East Millinocket for nine years and led the Wolverines to state Class C championships in 1992 and ’95. His teams always made the tournament and were never seeded lower than fourth.

He left to become the AD at Ellsworth in 1999.

“I’m excited to do it,” said the 52-year-old Brown, who also coached the boys varsity soccer team at Schenck. “I’m familiar with the kids. I have an idea of their individual strengths and weaknesses by watching them the last few years.”

Brown said he expects veteran assistant coaches Brian Higgins and Corey Bagley to be valuable assets in his transition and that he expects to have a competitive team.

“We have a lot of veterans coming back. We won’t be real tall, but we’ll have good size. We should be OK. We should be in the mix in [Class] B,” said Brown, who will implement an uptempo style of play.

“We want to play to our talents,” said Brown.

Ellsworth had only one senior on its 2004-2005 team and went 11-9.

The ninth-seeded Eagles knocked off No. 8 Winslow 56-51 in the preliminary round of the Eastern Maine Class B Tournament before losing to top seed and eventual state champ Camden Hills 44-39 in the quarterfinals.