By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

Nobody knew that Paul Williams’ final season as head boys basketball coach at Dublin would be a year before he actually left the school.

Complications from back surgery sidelined him for nearly all of the 2018-19 season, giving way to Tracy White on the bench.

Williams was able to only see two games while inactive during a 12-13 season that ended in the first round of the state tournament. Nevertheless, Dublin released him from his coaching nearly two weeks ago, after a 146-50 stint with the Irish, and in less than a week, he had a new job just up the road.

Williams agreed last Monday to become the new head coach at Trinity Christian, a Class 3A GISA program, less than a week after the separation with Dublin.

The story was first reported last Tuesday by the Dublin Courier-Herald.

“I’m moving on,” Williams said last Wednesday. “It’s a great situation, and I’m just loving life right now.”

Williams takes over for Clint Thomas, who was a longtime head coach at Dublin, who served a year for the Crusaders.

It’s been a wild year for Williams, who had been back to school for about a month when he was called in to a meeting nearly two weeks ago with outgoing principal Toney Jordan, incoming principal Jaroy Stuckey, and athletics director and head football coach Roger Holmes.

The meeting was to “discuss the future of Dublin basketball,” Holmes said.

Superintendent Fred Williams told the Courier-Herald that the district doesn’t comment on personnel matters.

“I’m going to follow the lead of our superintendent,” Holmes said.

Within a few minutes, Dublin was without a head basketball coach and Williams without a job. The official transaction can be debated: Dublin was ostensibly releasing Williams from coaching-only duties as Williams promptly turned in his resignation.

Williams said he was told the school simply wanted to go in a different direction. Williams said he’d always had good relationships with all three: Stuckey was an assistant for Williams before taking the girls head coaching job prior to moving into administration.

Still, Williams went to the meeting prepared to resign.

“I just had a feeling,” he said. “I don’t know really what happened. … I’m still in shock, to be honest with you.”

It’s an odd ending at Dublin for Williams after an odd year that started with optimism.

“We went 24-4 (in 2017-18) and we ended up going to Fort Lauderdale that year and end up winning that national tournament,” he said of winning the championship in one of five divisions of the Kreul Classic in Coral Springs, Fla., in December, 2017. “I was really looking forward to this team (2018-19) because I thought this team could win (a state title). We had height, we had depth, and I didn’t think (Class) AA was as tough as it had been.”

Early in the he had weakness in his leg one day in practice, went home and told his wife about it, and then fell while going to get some water. He said an MRI on uncovered two discs that had erupted, and erupted from the side, which affected nerves.

And perhaps next up on board at Dublin?

          Holmes confirmed Sunday that a familiar name to Dublin basketball and Central Georgia would be submitted to the Dublin City Schools at its board meeting Monday night to succeed Williams.
          “Ben Smith is going to be presented to our board (Monday night),” Holmes said.
          Smith is a Dublin basketball legend, having led the Irish to the GHSA Class AA state title in 2005-06, helping to set the stage for another title in 2008-09. He went on to an all-conference career at Jacksonville, then an Atlantic Sun Conference rival of Mercer. Smith and Mercer standout James Florence had some memorable battles, both starting and ending their college careers at the same time.
          Smith, entered into the Jacksonville Hall of Fame in 2016, had a few NBA tryouts but went on to a steady career playing internationally. Nevertheless, Smith held camps or an exhibition game in Dublin every summer since graduating from Jacksonville. He finally retired a few months ago, taking up residence in Jacksonville.
          His father Curtis has been huge in Dublin youth sports as a major impact person in the local rec department for about as long as his son has been alive has been alive.
          Holmes said Smith has been working with a community program in a local district in Jacksonville. As for teaching certification, Holmes explained that with Dublin as a charter school system, a four-year college degree allows for employment as a teacher with a temporary teaching certificate so long as a full-fledged teaching certificate is obtained in a few years.

“They had to get fragments off the spine, and (the doctor) thought I was finished,” Williams said. “When it erupted, it went right in (the) nerve canal, that’s why (he) was having trouble walking. It killed all the nerves to my leg.”

Williams had the first three games of the season under his belt, and thought he would miss only a few games after deciding to have the situation addressed, but he said a three-hour surgery became a nine-hour surgery, put the sometimes-hyper Williams on his back for a week. And he said he had to relearn to walk.

Williams said had community assistant coaches, who would be ineligible to take over. He went on leave, and a few options Dublin looked at didn’t pan out, so assistant football coach Tracy White volunteered to take over the team.

Williams said way back in the fall early in the process, he apparently had some sort of premonition of where he may end up, not realizing a dismissal was coming..

“I looked at my wife – I was on all these drugs and stuff – and said, ‘I’m going to Trinity,’” Williams said. “She said, ‘OK, we’ll talk about it when we get out.’ I said, ‘just wait and see what I tell you,’ and then I went right to sleep.”

While anguishing away from the game, he looked forward to returning to the bench. Perhaps too much.

Williams said some players called or texted, and that they expressed some dissatisfaction, which made him unhappy. He said his wife and his sister convinced him to visit the gym just for some face time with players.

“I didn’t coach ‘em, I just talked to ‘em,” he said. “I go home, I’m feeling good, I’m hyped up, they’re hyped up.”

That was in early January, and the situation about communication with players was reportedly discussed between the parties, and soon after, Williams said he got a letter from Dublin City Schools saying he was banned from the premises while on medical leave and could not contact players, coaches, or players’ parents.

“After that, I did not contact any players,” he said.

He said a few players apparently didn’t want to participate in senior night, so he was invited by the superintendent to that game, and also went to a home game against Washington County in the region tournament.

“I didn’t break any rules,” said Williams, noting he got no other warnings from administrators regarding any behavior or issues.

He said he was contacted after pretty much every season to discuss other jobs, but wasn’t looking to leave Dublin or Laurens County. After all, between stints at alma mater West Laurens and at Dublin, he was 222-68 with a state title with the Raiders.

“In the county,” he said, “I’m pretty good.”

Williams said Trinity Christian contacted him before the separation, and he wasn’t ready to pull any trigger. After the separation, it was an easy decision.

“I know the school well,” said Williams, who has two children attending Trinity Christian. “It ended up being a lot of incentives that I just couldn’t turn down.

“I’m just blessed. I really feel blessed about the opportunity.”

New girls coach on board

While Dublin closes in on a new boys coach, it recently named a new girls coach.

Earl Seeley succeeds Cortina Fann, who led the Irish for two years after Jaroy Stuckey, who moved into administration.

Seeley spent 10 seasons at Wagener Salley High in Wagener, S.C., about 15 miles off of I-10 between Augusta and Columbia, S.C.

He comes to Dublin from W-S’s boys team, but coached both varsity girls and boys for a few years.

He’s an alum of Powers Memorial Academy in New York City, also the alma mater of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

“He’s got a winning percentage in the 65-75 percent range,” said Holmes, noting Seeley had coached at Washington-Wilkes and Jefferson County. “We did an interview, brought in five candidates, and he was the choice.

“He comes highly recommended. I think he fits our program very, very well.”