By Staff
Terra Ceia coach able to maximize teams’ talent
By BRIAN HAINES, Sports Writer
Rod Cantrell watched from the sideline as his Knights, locked in a battle with conference rival Ridgecroft, were in the midst of a serious scoring drought. On the other hand, the Rams were steadily chipping away at Terra Ceia’s lead, running the Knights’ players ragged around screens for easy buckets.
After building up a 12-5 lead in the first quarter, Cantrell decided to switch out of his zone defense and opened up the second quarter playing man-to-man.
The move backfired. The Terra Ceia defenders reacted too slowly to the picks and were getting lost in the well-executed offense of Ridgecroft.
With the hope that his defense would adjust, the Knights’ coach gave his team nearly the whole quarter to adjust, but when the Rams pulled too close, Cantrell quickly signaled for a TO and resorted back to the zone.
Crisis aborted. The shift back to zone halted the Rams’ attack, as the Knights went into halftime up 17-13 en route to a 41-31 victory. The win kept their perfect conference record intact, a record that would stay that way for the rest of the season.
That sequence of action against Ridgecroft serves as a microcosm of what makes Cantrell such a successful head coach, and as the Washington Daily News Co-Coach of the Year.
After establishing an early lead, Cantrell, one of the area’s best X and O’s coaches, could have ordered his team to sit back in its zone for the rest of the game, but that would be predictable. The Knights’ skipper relies heavily on the element of surprise.
Every good coach has that little risk taker that sits on his shoulder throughout the course of the game with his sunglasses on and hat pulled down over his face just waiting to roll the dice.
It’s knowing when to give in to the tiny Doyle Brunson yelling in your ear that makes a good coach. However, it’s knowing when to override him that makes a great coach.
Cantrell rolled snake eyes with his man defense. More than likely he knew that after two minutes, but instead of overacting and quickly calling it off or berating his team for not moving quickly enough, he let them try to figure it out on their own.
The move showed Cantrell’s confidence in his team. His decision to put the dice away for a while is why his players displayed so much confidence in him.
That kind of faith in one another explains how the Knights, with one double-digit scorer on the squad, won the Tarheel Independent Conference with a 23-6 record and made it into the NCISAA 1-A state playoffs.
Knowing that his team lacked firepower, Cantrell decided not to dwell on what the Knights didn’t have, but to maximize what they did.
While the Knights’ lacked scoring prowess, they were chock full of passion. They also had a squad full of unselfish players willing to do the dirty work, and a super sophomore capable of carrying the offensive load.
Jordan Cantrell, Rod’s daughter, has been the starting point guard for Terra Ceia the last two years. After having a solid freshman season in 2005-06, Jordan Cantrell had a breakout season this year and averaged 17 points per game to emerge as the Knights’ primary scoring threat.
Some of the elder players could have easily been threatened by the budding star, but instead they embraced her and each player found her own niche in the offense.
Cantrell said that kind of leadership was the key to the Knights’ success. He credited his seniors for the team’s improvement from a 12-10 record in 2005-06 to 23-6 record in 2006-07.
Cantrell was also quick to point out that insight from new assistant coach Jeff Tubaugh played a critical role in the team’s development as well as player-coach relations.
Vikings’ skipper wins fourth straight WDN coaching honor
By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
PLYMOUTH — There are certain things you can count on in the spring — birds chirping, flowers blooming and Ulysses Hooker winning a Coach of the Year award.
For the fourth straight year, the Plymouth High School mentor has been named the Washington Daily News’ Girls Basketball Coach of the Year. Hooker shares the award with Terra Ceia coach Rod Cantrell this year.
Hooked led his Vikings to a 19-3 overall record this season. Under Hooker’s direction, Plymouth won the Atlantic Conference regular-season championship for the fourth straight year and the conference tournament title for the third consecutive year.
Hooker’s team also won the sectional championship and advanced to the Class 1-A East Regionals, where the Vikings eventually fell 46-45 to Pender.
Though the Vikings had a target on their jerseys, as every team wanted to knock off the defending champions, Hooker said his team handled everything well.
Hooker said attitude and balance were keys to his team’s success.
Plymouth went 22-3 last year, giving Hooker a 41-6 mark in the last two years. Though he won’t have Whitney Stokes, a three-time Daily News’ Player of the Year, back next season, he does return to talent as he’ll look to build on the team’s success.
The Vikings are on a roll. They’ll be gunning for their fifth consecutive conference championship.
With Hooker at the helm, that’s certainly possible.