FISHER — There will be a familiar face leading the Fisher boys’ basketball team this winter.

Former head coach of the Bunnies, Doug Ingold, moved on to become the high school’s athletic director this offseason. That left the first chair open, and Ingold’s assistant Tucker Cribbett learned last month that he’d be claiming it.

“We were told in July that our A.D. stepped down and I had an idea that Doug would maybe be interested in that kind of opportunity to have a chance at this role,” Cribbett said. “They actually let me know I was hired like the first week of September. I went through the interview process and they let me know the first week of September that I was going to be the guy.”

Cribbett, 27, has been on the Fisher sideline for the past three seasons. He’s been coaching in the school system for four years, coaching the school’s seventh-grade team. That team now fill the junior class at Fisher, and its his first players that will lead the charge for him once more.

“I have some different ideas that might help us in the win column, but I have a good group of guys, the junior and senior class that we have, we’ve got some really good players in there,” Cribbett said. “I think just making them kind of start this new era with me coming in as coach, having them kind of help me set the standard that we’re wanting to set at Fisher basketball will prolong the success that we were slowly heading in. I think having the junior and senior class having me help start that is going to be great.”

Ingold was 35-119 in six years at the helm, but he helped the Bunnies to a 12-20 record during the 2024-25 season.

Cribbett, a Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley graduate in 2017, said that he’s played basketball since he was 3-years-old. As an assistant, Cribbett said he often shared ideas with Ingold and the two had a good relationship through their tenure. Part of his responsibilities included scouting and providing input at practice and occasionally drawing up a play during a game.

“My thing is just making sure our kids are playing hard, have a lot of energy and effort,” he said. “I don’t think we should have to coach that; that’s kind of an expectation and standard that we’re going to have at Fisher. I think when it comes to the philosophy and what kind of defense you run, that could change year-in, year-out depending on the guys we got. I have a great group of guys this year and I think there’s a lot of things we’ll be able to do and have success with.”

Cribbett, who just got married this past September, inherits a Fisher team that finished 8-22 a season ago. Like he’s seen firsthand this fall as a coach of the football team’s linebackers and halfbacks, the move to the Lincoln Prairie Conference could help the Bunnies field an even more competitive group.

Perhaps it’ll assist the Bunnies to their first winning season since 2016-17.

“I always knew once I started that I wanted to be a head coach at some point and so when they told me I got the job I was pretty ecstatic,” Cribbett said.”