Dan Spainhour is back coaching basketball after a two-year absence, accepting a spot on the Florida State staff.

Spainhour was named Florida State's director of basketball operations on May 26 and reunited with Coach Leonard Hamilton, with whom he worked when both were at Miami in the late 1990s. Spainhour, 45, is a former coach at West Stokes High School in King and also coached at Bishop McGuinness in the early 1980s.

Spainhour will be in charge of the daily operations of the Florida State program and its summer camps. He said he's eager to help Hamilton try to make the program among the best in the ACC after spending the past two years in the private sector.

"I'm happy to be in this position, no doubt," Spainhour said from his office in Tallahassee yesterday. "Growing up where I grew up and having a chance to be in the ACC will be almost like a dream come true. I coached for 20 years, and I still would like to have the opportunity to coach at this level. This is a step in the right direction."

Spainhour replaces Guy Rancourt, who left to become an assistant coach at the University of Stony Brook in New York. Spainhour first worked for Hamilton for two seasons as a graduate assistant at Miami, while getting a master's degree in sports administration.

"I had been looking (to get back into coaching); I had always been looking," Spainhour said. "I had stayed in contact with Coach Hamilton after working for him at Miami. As a matter of fact, I had stayed in contact with the whole staff. One thing led to another."

Spainhour left coaching in March 2003 when he resigned at West Stokes. He worked at the school starting in 1998 as boys' coach and athletics director. He was the conference coach of the year in 2002. He took West Stokes to the state tournament in the school's first year of existence and reached the sectional semifinals in the third season.

He and his family moved to Naples, Fla., after leaving West Stokes and Spainhour ran basketball camps there. He wrote instructional manuals designed to serve as motivational guides for coaches and a guide for running basketball camps. His East Coast summer-basketball camp was highly successful.

Running the Seminoles' camps will be Spainhour's chief duty, although he will also handle the team's travel during the season and all daily functions.

"I guess a little more experience (running camps) with my background helps out," Spainhour said. "It helps, I think, that Coach Hamilton and I know each other, and we've worked together in the past. We're right in the middle of camp right now. We've got three camps going now and team camp will be in July. It really helps because I know this staff. It's a great staff to work for, having been with them before at Miami."

Spainhour became the McGuinness coach in 1982 after graduating from High Point College that year. He stayed there until 1995. He took McGuinness to the private schools' state-championship game twice, to three conference championships and two conference tournament championships.

McGuinness had four 20-win seasons under Spainhour. His experience with running summer camps began at McGuiness.

• Bill Cole can be reached at bcole@wsjournal.com