Mark Nold has resigned as the boys basketball coach at Perry, he said on Wednesday.

Nold will be the basketball coach and assume other athletic administrative duties at Arizona College Prep, a new school opening in Chandler next year. The Pumas made the Division I quarterfinals last season as the No. 23 seed by upsetting North and Basha in the first two rounds of the state tournament. A loss to Pinnacle ended their season. Perry finished 21-9 last year.

“I love everything there is about Perry,” Nold said. “It’s never easy, and it was especially hard to tell the players.”

Nold said Arizona College Prep will be a smaller school – with an eventual capacity near 6-700 students – and he is interested in building the athletic programs from the ground up. The school will start in the Division IV classification.

Nold went 66-50 in his four seasons as coach of Perry. He coached Glendale Apollo to three straight state titles from 2005-2007.

Tags: Arizona College Prep, Mark Nold, Perry