Flowers named new boys hoops coach at WCDS

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on April 29, 2013 1:47 PM

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Great, hard-working players led to a successful three-year head coaching stint for David Flowers at Community Christian School in Wilson.

He hopes that trend continues at perennial independent power Wayne Country Day.

Flowers accepted the head varsity basketball job late last week.

"It was a very good first day, good first meeting for me and the guys," Flowers said. "I was nervous myself and probably some of the guys were thinking 'who is this new coach?' and I'm thinking 'who is this new team?'

"To come in here in a program like this, it's (a) relatively easy (transition). (Former coach) Terry (Jones) has done a great job and my objective is to keep it going. The attitude of winning here is already in place. It's just a matter of fine-tuning a couple of things and seeing what happens."

Jones resigned in late March to pursue a career in ministry. He guided the Chargers to 110 wins and six consecutive elite eight appearances in the N.C. High School Athletic Association Class 1-A basketball playoffs.

Flowers had similar success at Community.

The Barton College alum won 85 games and two Carolina Christian 1-A Conference regular-season championships during his three-year campaign. He received the CCC coach-of-the-year award all three seasons on the Cyclones' bench.

Community made three consecutive trips to the elite eight.

"We are very excited about Coach Flowers joining the WCDS family," said Chargers athletics director Michael Taylor. "Coach Flowers has been around independent schools his entire life, so he knows how the system works. He brings a knowledge of basketball to the school and I know the boys' program will only continue to get better.

"Not only are we getting a basketball coach, we are getting a coach who can coach any sport and is willing to coach any sport at the school."

Flowers inherits a program that returns eight players off last year's team that posted 17 wins and reached the semifinals of the Coastal Plains Independent Conference tournament.

Included in the mix is the backcourt of Joel Davis and Lee Atkinson, and 6-foot-4 swing man Marlon Coley. Atkinson was selected the CPIC player-of-the-year and earned a spot on the NCISAA all-state squad.

The players welcomed Flowers with open arms upon his introduction and peppered him with questions about workouts, open gyms and camps. He said the team will attend one-day exposure camps at Mount Olive College and UNC Pembroke, and host their annual mid-summer camp.

Flowers brims with excitement about having his own gym for practice and game days. Community played its home contests at the Eastern N.C. School for the Deaf and practiced at different churches in the Wilson area.

"It's going to be great," a grinning Flowers said. "We're just going to work. Every coach is different, but I feel like Terry and I have some of the same philosophies. They know we have to play 100 percent every night."

When WCDS handed Community a six-point loss this past February, Flowers marveled at the Chargers' athleticism and quietly wondered how fun it would be to coach Jones' players.

Now he's got the chance.