Cougars adjusting to new coach

This week?s East Coast Invitational in Jacksonville will serve as a great tool for Croatan.

Like the rest of the teams in the annual basketball camp, the Cougars will not only get several games against good competition, it will allow Croatan?s players to know what they need to work on prior to the start of the regular season.

It will also help Cougars? new coach Kirk McDougle understand what he can expect to see come the season?s start.

?Right now this is our chance to see what we are made of and to get some chemistry,? McDougle said. ?I have great kids who have worked their butts off and they are getting better every day. It?s clich? but that?s what I really want.?

Last month McDougle was named Croatan?s coach when Dexter Williams stepped down after three seasons. Williams led the Cougars to a 24-3 overall record, the program?s first East Central 2-A Conference title and a trip to the NCHSAA sectional finals last year.

However, Williams relinquished his position after his family announced that twins Ashley and Aaron Williams would be transferring to Greenfield School in Wilson in an effort to enhance their chances at playing NCAA Division I college basketball.

These departures left the Cougars not only without a coach, but also without two of their top players.

Still, McDougle, a history teacher at Croatan, jumped at the chance at being the new coach after serving the past year as a coach for both the junior varsity boys and JV girls teams.

?Every boy on this team, minus Jacques (Chambers) and Austin (Saunders), I?ve coached in the past,? McDougle said. ?Since a good majority of them are seniors, I wanted them to have someone they were familiar with.?

Croatan?s Jacques Chambers, who last year averaged 19 points, nine rebounds and two assists per game, likes McDougle being his new coach.

?He?s laid back, but if you push the wrong buttons, he will get serious,? Chambers said. ?He?s a good person.?

Now that he?s coach, McDougle is appreciative for the opportunity to coach the Cougars.

?I?m very excited,? he said. ?I thank the administration and everybody else for supporting me. We are going to have some bumps along the road, but I think once we teach the fundamentals and get into conference play, we will be a tough team.?

Because Dexter Williams stepped down right at the end of the school year and the ultimate hiring of McDougle came in the middle of the summer, Croatan hasn?t had much time to form workouts prior to the ECI team camp.

?This summer a lot of the guys have been playing AAU and we haven?t really had a chance to play together as a unit,? McDougle said. ?To be honest, we are about four to six weeks behind a lot of these teams.

?We are going to do open gyms and I have made a preseason workout schedule.?

Given the limited time he?s had with his squad, McDougle has used the ECI not only to take a look at players, but also to teach some of the basics.

?We are really trying to teach man defense,? he said. ?A lot of these guys are trying to play at the next level and they need to learn how to play man defense. We will also stress just playing together and having fun.?

It does beg the question, though, if the Cougars are putting pressure on themselves to win without the Williams family.

?There?s an opportunity to use it as a rallying cry or bulletin material, but I don?t see it that way,? McDougle said. ?The guys wearing the jerseys are the ones on the team. They have a chance to defend as ECC champs, and that should be our focus.?

Yet Chambers said he?s heard people talk down the Cougars. He wants to use that talk as motivation.

?People have predicted that we will have a losing record,? Chambers said. ?It drives me. It makes me want to play better.?

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Source: http://www.jdnews.com/sports/week-106095-adjusting-coach.html

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