Coaching turnover has become fairly common in high school sports in recent years, but the volume of boys basketball coaching changes in the Eastern Six Rivers Conference this summer is rather excessive.

As my colleague Mark Nesbitt at the Monroe Times reported in this recent article, five of the seven coaches in the conference have resigned or retired since the end of the 2008-09 season. That list includes:

• Argyle's Travis Erickson
• Black Hawk's Jerry Mortimer
• Juda's Andy Werner
• Monticello's Brad Pickett
• Pecatonica's Jim Syse

As Mark's story points out, reasons for the departures varied.

Erickson coached basketball and baseball at Argyle in addition to teaching and serving as athletic director so his free time was limited, at best. Mortimer retired after a long and successful career. Werner and Pickett took new coaching jobs -- Werner coaching boys basketball at West De Pere and Pickett coaching girls basketball at Brodhead, where he teaches -- and Syse, 57, stepped aside in hopes that someone younger would replace him.

"When I took it, I was just trying to help out the school," Syse told the Times. "It's a  younger man's job. It's a long season. It's better for the program to have someone younger who will build the program."

Two of the programs have already tabbed replacements. Argyle has named Kurt Ritschard -- a 2002 Argyle grad and three-sport star -- to replace Erickson while Black Hawk has tabbed Kyle Bille to succeed Mortimer.