When Perry High hired its first boys basketball coach prior to the 2007-2008 season it landed a coach with a championship pedigree.

On Thursday Perry made it  2-for-2 in that regard, venturing to the Southwest Valley to nab Joe Babinski from Desert Edge to replace the relocated Mark Nold.

Babinski leaves Desert Edge where he posted a 144-56 record in seven seasons. That stint included a 4A-II state title in 2008 and final four finishes three times. Desert Edge finished with a 14-11 record in 2011-2012. Babinski replaces Nold, who left Perry to become the athletic director and boys basketball coach at Chandler's new Arizona College Prep. Nold won three titles in the 4A and 4A-I ranks at Apollo.

Babinski has coached high school basketball for 38 years. He has 575 career victories, the bulk of which came in 30-plus years in Oklahoma. Babinski was a standout in his high school playing career at Palo Verde High in Tucson and collegiately at Arizona Western and Northeastern Oklahoma State University.

Babinski inherits a program that has reached the playoffs all four years of its varsity existence. Perry was 21-9 in 2011-2012. The school won its first state tournament game ever this year, advancing as the 24th and final seed to the quarterfinal round before losing to Pinnacle.