Dodge County has new head coaches, old winning formula
There are a few things easily associated with basketball at Dodge County.
Stability. And winning.
The girls program had one head coach for nearly 30 years, Dick Kelly, who led the Indians to the GHSA finals four times and semifinals four more times and left a quality program in the hands of assistant Carol Smith.
She stayed for more than a decade, reaching the semifinals twice, and passed the position along to her assistant, Paula Selph.
Selph resigned after last season following only a few years so she could spend more time following the basketball career of her daughter, Rachel, at Mercer. She was succeeded by assistant CaSandra Hamilton.
The boys program hasn’t had quite that level of consistency on the bench, but Danny McCoy put in more than decade of quality work before moving into administration.
But now, the boys team is on its third head coach in three seasons, with Robert Cotton taking over for Brent Anderson, who left for family reasons after one season following taking over for Danielle Johnson, who made a move for family reasons, as well.
No matter. Both programs are rolling along.
The girls improved to 12-2 with Tuesday’s 60-21 romp at Northeast, and the boys beat the Raiders 69-62 to go to 7-3.
Both head coaches — who have former Dodge County standout Yandel Brown as an assistant — have different issues to work through.
For Cotton, it’s being yet another new face for the Indians.
“We’ve got a lot of trust issues,” he said. “They don’t trust me, and I don’t trust them. It’s a working process.”
Cotton came to Dodge County from Wayne County, where he spent three struggling seasons. He went 64-42 at Americus-Sumter earlier in his career and spent a season at Crisp County.
Cotton brings intensity to the Indians’ bench, as well as high expectations. For one, he gets almost grumpy thinking about the Indians’ three losses.
“Should be (10)-0, but I can’t live on no ‘if,’ ” he said. “Two of the teams, we had played before. And you’re dealing kids and their mentality.”
The Indians were handed revenge by Wayne County and Wilcox County, teams they had beaten by 22 and three and then lost to by three and one, just before the Christmas break.
They’ll get a chance at avenging the third loss Saturday when they host Bleckley County, a 55-52 winner in early December.
The three losses are by a total of seven points, but making sure the Indians stay straight mentally remains a priority.
“I told them this game is 90 percent mental,” said Cotton, a native of Alabama. “We’re playing well, but I told them my whole philosophy of 25 years is that you can have a bad night on offense, but I’ve read about three of Michael Jordan’s books. Said you can’t ever have a bad night on hustle and defense.”
The Indians are led by juniors Nick Cummings, Demarcus Caines and Readell Hunt.
“We have talent,” Cotton said. “Talent plus passions means win, win, win. You put passion with talent, and we can go a long way.”
A long way is the standard for the girls program, and nobody has to tell Hamilton.
She was part of two state championship teams and a runner-up in the late 1980s under Kelly as a point guard.
“That’s the man,” Hamilton said of Kelly, not known for being overly calm and collected on the sideline.
She has spent the period following the conclusion of her playing days to only a few years ago completely out of basketball, taking care of family.
But when daughter Destanee started taking a bigger interest in basketball, Hamilton decided to, as well, and eventually joined the her alma mater’s girls staff as an assistant under Selph only four years ago.
“I always loved basketball,” said Hamilton, whose daughter Courtney also played at Dodge County. “Even when my children didn’t play, I always attended games.”
Hamilton was confident she could handle suddenly becoming a basketball coach, and joining Selph’s staff was a good fit.
“She would say things and I would be thinking it, or I would say things and she would be thinking it,” Hamilton said. “We were on the same level as far as coaching.”
Initially, she was concerned about the lack of experience, especially for joining such a quality program from the start.
“I always was nervous about being a coach,” she said. “I didn’t think I could be as good a coach as I was a player. That was the thing that really stood out in my mind. All I can do is tell them what I’ve learned and hope that they can take it in and use it.”
So far, so good. Dodge County’s only losses are to Telfair County and Jackson, and Hamilton’s daughter along with Tierra Hamilton and Jurnee Powell average in double figures and help the Indians to nearly 20 steals a game.
Those are the kinds of numbers that Hamilton’s former coach can live with, but high standards are where the similarities end.
“I can’t talk to ’em like Coach Kelly did,” Hamilton said with a laugh. “I probably wouldn’t have my job. But the way he talked to us made us tough and it made us better ballplayers.
“We knew he didn’t mean anything by it, he just wanted us to be better ballplayers and better people.”
This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 6:18 PM with the headline "Dodge County has new head coaches, old winning formula."