Three seasons ago, Charlton Grey was hired as McComb’s head girls basketball coach and what has he done in that time?
He’s helped lead the Lady Tigers to a 75-17 record and three straight district championships, the most recent coming last Friday following a 54-43 win over the Lanier Lady Bulldogs.
Grey said after the win, that it was hard to rank the three titles.
“They’re 1A, 1B and 1C,” he said with a smile. “The first one will always be special because that was my first year here, but to see the continuing growth. Some people said we wasn’t supposed to do it, but I knew what kind of team we had and what kind of fight we had.”
McComb enters the Class 4A playoffs tonight with a 24-4 record following 29-3 season last year. In most games, the Lady Tigers dominate and make it look easy, but there was a lot of work put in on the front end to build the foundation for the benefits that are being reaped right now.
Grey took over for Angelia Johnson, who was well-liked, according to a few players on the team. They admitted it was an adjustment period, getting used to Grey and a few even expressed doubt that they could be successful in the beginning.
“We had every doubt in mind that we were not going to make it,” senior Destiny Smith said. “We didn’t know who he was, we were so used to our other coach.”
The coach said it took some time, but the main component was trust.
“I had to tell them, ‘Sometimes you get a job and you want to bad mouth another coach.’ I didn’t do that,” he said. “I told those young ladies on Day 1, I’m not changing much of what they’ve done. I just want to show you how to execute and then I slowly began to implement my system and still let them do some of the things their previous coach let them do.”
Some of the players said Grey’s high-energy coaching style was something they had to get used to, but they know he’s coming from a good place.
“We had to learn to adjust,” said junior Ebony Gayden. “That man loves us to death. Just because we understand him as his players being there for a while. We know when he acting crazy, it’s because he really wants it.”
Grey said when he took the, he knew the team had potential and with that potential would come high expectations.
“Just being around McComb itself since 1991, I grew up with these kids’ parents,” Grey said. “I watched those parents play. Those children have the same fight and desire as their parents and I’m fortunate enough to be the coach.”
The Lady Tigers have come up short of the ultimate goal the last two seasons, which included a trip to the Final Four in 2016, followed by a trip to the Elite Eight last season.
McComb enters this year’s playoffs minus several key contributors from last year’s team, but they will have a healthy Dellesheonia Dixon who suffered an injury in the first playoff game last year and missed the rest of the playoffs.
Grey said he believes this year’s team is unique because of its versatility.
“What makes them so special, four or five girls I can put on the floor that can handle the ball at one time,” Grey said. “Chardonay Williams has grown tremendously as a point guard and shooting guard. Destiny Smith has grown. Dellesheonia Dixon has grown with their ball handling. Ebony Gayden was the secret weapon that no one knew anything about and I told her that at the beginning of the year. She bought into, she listened and she likes that ball in her hands. This team grew together. The way my offensive scheme is set up, everybody can score at any given time.”
Williams said she was happy with Friday’s district championship victory but not satisfied.
“We knew our seniors coming into this year had something to accomplish because we didn’t get it done last year,” she said. “We paved the way for everybody so we wanted them to help us get what we want...We have the best coach ever and we love our team.”
As tonight’s first-round playoff matchup against Sumrall approaches, Grey said his team has learned some things from past experiences in the postseason.
“These kids have really truly allowed me to coach them and these last three, four, five ball games, I’ve been more calm because they told me, ‘Coach, we got you,’ ” he said. “I called a few plays, they ran them, we executed. We’ve probably seen more ball movement in the last three games than you’ve seen in a long time with them. They understand the magnitude of this and this is probably the first time they’ve won three straight district championships in 20 years and that’s saying something for these young ladies.”
McComb hosts Sumrall tonight at 6.
