Between a stroke of luck and his hometown calling, the opportunity was too much to pass up for Brian Kiper.

The now-former Myrtle Beach girls basketball coach officially resigned from his position with the school in lieu of job offers for both he and his wife back in Ohio. Kiper will take on the golf program at Triway High School, not only his alma mater but the school in which he started his teaching and coaching career.

Jennifer Kiper, who had volunteered with the women’s volleyball team at Coastal Carolina under former coach Kristen Bauer, will become the head volleyball coach at the University of Akron-Wayne College.

“It all happened kind of quick,” Brian Kiper said Thursday. “We put our house [in Carolina Forest] up for sale in May because we wanted to move … closer to the beach. In the span of two weeks, we got an offer on our house and we both got offered jobs. What are you going to do?”

Kiper coached Myrtle Beach to back-to-back Class AAA state titles in 2010 and 2011 behind star guard Khadijah Sessions and a number of other players now in the college ranks. Sessions graduated in May after 3,020 career points, several players of the year honors and a scholarship to the University of South Carolina.

Kiper, however, said her departure had nothing to do with his decision.

“I went through the whole summer with the girls. I did everything like I would have done,” he said. “Had it not been my alma mater and an [area] where my parents and my wife’s parents lived, I would still be teaching and coaching at Myrtle Beach today.”

Kiper actually played a role in three state titles for Myrtle Beach. Prior to taking over the girls’ program, he was a volunteer assistant for the 2008 boys team that also won the Class AAA state title. It helped pave the way for his hire as the girls coach.

In that capacity, he finished 99-15 overall and 38-2 in region play in four seasons.

His hire at Triway became official Monday evening. He officially resigned from Myrtle Beach on Tuesday, although he held off making it public until he could speak with Seahawk Athletics Director John Cahill.

Kiper said they spoke Thursday.

Cahill did not immediately return a phone message. However, the position will likely attract plenty of interest.

The Seahawks have won four state titles since 1985 and have a tradition of developing plenty of talent. Sessions was the most notable, but she’s not the only one.

Returning forward Tanisha Brown will have one more year in uniform. The University of North Carolina commit would have likely been all-state as a junior had it not been for a knee injury suffered in January.

Contact IAN GUERIN at ian@ianguerin.com.