Thursday, Mar. 19, 2009

Camden champions: Q&A with coach McKie

Camden earned its second boys basketball championship by defeating Greer 77-62 in the Class 3A title game. It was the Bulldogs’ first crown in 51 years.

Two championships may not make the Kershaw County city Title Town, but that is what it feels like to coach Ron McKie and the Bulldogs.

McKie talked to The State’s Akilah Imani Nelson about his team’s championship run:

QUESTION: You said all season that the community supported the team big-time. What is it like now that you won the championship?

ANSWER: I actually haven’t really been out much, but the teachers and the administration and faculty have all been great.

We have a signing at Burger King this week ... I think the proceeds from that go to purchasing our rings, and I know that the community will be very supportive of that ... Coach (Jimmy) Neal won a (football) championship in 2001, and my son was on that team, so I remember what all of that was like.

Q: How did you know your team could be a state champion?

A: Coming back in overtime, beating Wilson at Wilson when we were down with less than a minute to go, that game was definitely a turning point in our season.

We knew that the team that won the region had a chance to get three home games in the postseason, and winning that game helped us win the region and get that.

Q: Your team did not play in a big arena in the semifinals. How did you prepare for the atmosphere of Colonial Life Arena?

A: We brought eight of them (players) Friday to the 4A championships, and I think that definitely helped. When we got there, some of them had some wide eyes when they saw the crowd and all of that. I think it definitely helped to have them see that then, so when we got in there and walked out onto the court it wasn’t totally new.

It was great for me, too. Instead of being nervous, I got to be excited. I wanted them not to be nervous, to just settle in and feed off the energy of the crowd, and I think they were able to do that once we weathered that initial attack that Greer put up.

Q: How difficult was it to remain confident as your team fell behind in the first quarter?

A: I didn’t want my team to see me panic. I wanted to let them play through it, so I didn’t call any timeouts.

In the previous rounds, we had to come back, so the team was used to that, I think. North Charleston, two games before, had gotten a pretty big lead, and then in the semifinals Battery Creek got up on us by about eight or 10 points, so our guys were familiar with that situation and knew we could still win.

Q: What was it like when it was all over and you realized your team was a state champion?

A: It almost went by too fast. I was really glad that we were the last game of the night so we didn’t have to rush off the court. We got to savor the victory a little bit. We took a lot of pictures and video that we’re still looking at now, and it is starting to sink in.

Q: What about next season?

A: We do lose Jay (Council) and Evrik (Gary), and those are some big shoes to fill, and we’re going to miss them tremendously. But we also have more coming back.

I’ve had some people ask me about next year, and I always say, ‘Let us enjoy this year still, and I’ll have a better idea in summer about what things will be next year.’

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