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Camden hires ex-players to coaching staff

By David Shelton

Staff Writer

Camden – Getting a chance to come back to your alma mater and coach is the dream of many coaches on the high school level. At Camden High School, athletic director and head football coach Jimmy Neal is living that dream.

Neal is a graduate of Camden High and came back 13 years ago to become the head football coach. He replaced Billy Ammons, who also played and graduated from Camden in the late 60’s.

Neal knows how special the feeling is to be coaching at “home” and is happy that he has been able to hire former Camden players to his coaching staff.

Two new hires for the coming season are Camden High graduates. Neal recently announced the hiring of Ron McKie, Jr., and Casey Faulkenberry to positions within the athletic department. Both will be assistant coaches within the football program.

“It’s nice to have kids come back and coach and we’re real happy to have them here,” said Neal. “Both young men are going to be fine coaches and I’m glad they saw fit to want to return home and coach.”

Neal says most of the varsity coaching staff will return this fall, as will the varsity football coaching staff.

Returning as the baseball coach is Denny Beckley while Lynn Looney will return as the softball coach. Robert Butcher will coach boy’s soccer next spring while Stephen Sutusky will coach girl’s soccer and wrestling.

Ron McKie, Sr., will return as the boy’s basketball coach and a new girl’s basketball coach has been hired and will be released later this summer.

Returning to lead the successful volleyball program is Paige Wilson. Pam Wilson will coach girl’s cross country and Jerry Stokes is the boy’s cross country coach.

Weslyn Hutto is coaching girl’s tennis this fall while long-time coach Roger Smoak coaches the boy’s tennis team in the spring. Matt McCarley is the boy’s golf coach, while Emet Reyes handles boy’s track. The girl’s track coach is Daniel Sisk.

Reyes and Sisk also serve on the football coaching staff, as does Beckley.

Joey Hendricks returns as the defensive coordinator and A.C. Collins is the assistant head coach. Robbie Speaks, another Camden High graduate, is the head junior varsity coach.

Other football assistant coaches are Brian Kersey, Jay Gates, Shelly Salmon and James Murphy.

 

 

The senior leaders are wing Daisy Whitaker and guard Jenna Angevine. Whitaker leads the team in scoring (10.7 ppg), assists (2.0 apg) and steals (2.1 spg) and is second on the club in rebounding (5.9 rpg). She opened the season with a 23-point game in a 54-37 win vs. L-E, had a double-double (10 points, 12 boards) in the second win over the Demons and posted 19 points and seven rebounds in an impressive 57-47 win over Class 4A Hartsville at the Taco Bell Classic.
The rest of the staring lineup features freshman point guard Jazzmine Devlin, freshman guard Audriana Dubose, junior forward Tyrina Brown and 5-11 sophomore center Chelsea Reynolds.
Devlin is averaging 3.0 points, 1.6 assists and 1.4 steals as a varsity rookie in a key spot. Dubose is averaging 2.5 points a game. Brown is averaging 7.1 points and 4.0 rebounds. She had a season-high 15 points in the 52-29 rout of L-E, and a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds) in a Taco Bell loss to 4A Blythewood. Reynolds had been very solid, averaging 9.2 points, a team-leading 6.5 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots. She tallied 18 points and grabbed nine boards vs. Hartsville and has two double-doubles on the books ? 12 points and 19 rebounds in the season opener vs. L-E; 12 points, 15 caroms against Blythewood.
The top players off the bench are junior guard Alex Barnes, sophomore Jermisha Wilson, sophomore guard Chloe Poole and junior forward Tyechia Reed.
Juniors CC Johnson, Shalace Rose and Amber Pate provided added depth.

 

Defending state champs off to slow start

By John Devlin
Special Writer
Camden (12/22/09)  It's still too early to make a rash judgment, but there is no question the Camden boys basketball team has been experiencing "state championship" hangover.
The Bulldogs, who took some major graduation hits, especially in the backcourt, are off to a 2-2 start through Dec. 11 with both losses coming at the hands of archrival Lugoff-Elgin. The upstart Demons completed the regular season sweep with a 65-44 win on the Bulldogs floor on Dec. 11.
"Maybe we've been enjoying the past a little too much, including myself," said Camden coach Ron McKie, who guided the Bulldogs to a 24-2 record and the program's first state title in 51 years last season.
"It's time for everybody to get back to doing the things we need to do to be successful. There's no doubt that this is a different team, but for some reason we're having a lot of trouble just playing good, sound basketball and that has to change."
The major challenge in the early going has been developing a new-look guard corps in the wake of the loss of two all-star players.
"We don't have that true point guard, but we're still working on getting that settled," said McKie.
In addition to the ball-handling woes evident in the two losses to quick Lugoff-Elgin, Camden has yet to establish a consistent outside shooting. And with no outside threat, enemy defenses will continue to turn full attention on senior forward Robert "Josh" Council ? last season's Class 3A player of the year.
Council had 15 points and 25 rebounds in the second L-E game, but no consistent support on the boards or in the scoring column.
"Josh is a little frustrated, but what we have to do is stop trying to force the ball into him as much as we have been," said McKie.
"It's time we just started running the offense the way we should be running it, and we'll start getting better shots for everybody, not just Josh. It hasn't been happening yet, but it's not because we're not trying. We just have to be patient and figure some things out. Hopefully, we'll be in a better position by the time the region season starts next month."
Council right now is Camden's only proven offensive option.
The new-look backcourt features seniors Marcus Brown, T.J. Perkins and Terry Lee. All three saw varsity time a year ago. Perkins was a starter, but at an off guard spot. Junior SaVonne Wingate is a returning veteran up front with Council.
McKie is also looking at senior Hakeem Watson, sophomore Jamari Furguson and freshman Josh Council, a second cousin of the Bulldogs star, at the three guard spots.
Seniors Hamid Mathis and K.J. Campbell are the top forward reserves.

 

 

een experiencing "state championship" hangover.
The Bulldogs, who took some major graduation hits, especially in the backcourt, are off to a 2-2 start through Dec. 11 with both losses coming at the hands of archrival Lugoff-Elgin. The upstart Demons completed the regular season sweep with a 65-44 win on the Bulldogs floor on Dec. 11.
"Maybe we've been enjoying the past a little too much, including myself," said Camden coach Ron McKie, who guided the Bulldogs to a 24-2 record and the program's first state title in 51 years last season.
"It's time for everybody to get back to doing the things we need to do to be successful. There's no doubt that this is a different team, but for some reason we're having a lot of trouble just playing good, sound basketball and that has to change."
The major challenge in the early going has been developing a new-look guard corps in the wake of the loss of two all-star players.
"We don't have that true point guard, but we're still working on getting that settled," said McKie.
In addition to the ball-handling woes evident in the two losses to quick Lugoff-Elgin, Camden has yet to establish a consistent outside shooting. And with no outside threat, enemy defenses will continue to turn full attention on senior forward Robert "Josh" Council ? last season's Class 3A player of the year.
Council had 15 points and 25 rebounds in the second L-E game, but no consistent support on the boards or in the scoring column.
"Josh is a little frustrated, but what we have to do is stop trying to force the ball into him as much as we have been," said McKie.
"It's time we just started running the offense the way we should be running it, and we'll start getting better shots for everybody, not just Josh. It hasn't been happening yet, but it's not because we're not trying. We just have to be patient and figure some things out. Hopefully, we'll be in a better position by the time the region season starts next month."
Council right now is Camden's only proven offensive option.
The new-look backcourt features seniors Marcus Brown, T.J. Perkins and Terry Lee. All three saw varsity time a year ago. Perkins was a starter, but at an off guard spot. Junior SaVonne Wingate is a returning veteran up front with Council.
McKie is also looking at senior Hakeem Watson, sophomore Jamari Furguson and freshman Josh Council, a second cousin of the Bulldogs star, at the three guard spots.
Seniors Hamid Mathis and K.J. Campbell are the top forward reserves.