They’re head coaches, great friends. They’ll face each other for a state hoops title
Bailey Harris spent the last three Class 5A state championship games sitting among Dorman fans at Colonial Life Arena.
On Friday, the Lexington Hall of Fame coach will have a decision to make about where he will sit for the title basketball game between Dorman and Dutch Fork.
Harris has a connection to the head coaches of both teams — Dorman’s Thomas Ryan and Dutch Fork’s Bret Jones. The two played for Harris at Lexington, and Jones also spent six seasons as Harris’ assistant.
“I sat with the Ryan family the last three years,” Harris said Monday. “My wife said maybe sit with the Ryans for the first half and the Jones family in the second half. It is going to be a special night.”
After Friday’s game, Harris will present Jones and Ryan with commemorative game balls as part of the postgame ceremony for the SC Basketball Coaches Association.
Harris last week watched Jones’ Dutch Fork squad beat Conway to earn the school’s second state title appearance. The team also played in the state title game in 2003. Harris cried after the game as he congratulated Jones and assistant coach Jason Cochcroft, who also played for Harris.
“I didn’t realize I would be overcome with emotion,” Harris said. “I am just so excited for Bret and those guys and that they get to play against Thomas’ team.”
Two coaches, two friends
Jones was a forward on Harris’ first Lexington team in 1987-88 and was one of the coach’s two players to average a double-double before going on to a standout career at Presbyterian. Harris called Ryan, who played point guard for Harris in the mid-1990s “an overachiever” who was a hard worker and knew how to play the game the right way.
“He is like a proud father right now wanting his boys to go out and do well,” Jones said of Harris.
The two coaches have former Lexington players on their coaching staffs. Cochcroft, a teammate of Ryan’s at Lexington, is an assistant at Dutch Fork while Zac Rich has been on Dorman’s staff for the past nine years.
Harris called Rich one of the best shooters he has ever coached.
“This transcends just two coaches,” Ryan said. “These are a bunch of good friends that come up coaching that love each other.”
Both Jones and Ryan spent time at Monday’s championship press conferences telling stories and joking with one another. The two are good friends and spoke with each other hours before their teams took the court in their semifinal games last weekend.
Jones coached Ryan when he was the JV coach at Lexington and the two have remained friends over the years.
Jones, his wife and daughter were in Ryan’s wedding. When Jones took a job at White Knoll, he hired Ryan to be his JV coach. Ryan spent one year before becoming a coach at Aiken.
Ryan remembers being ejected from a game early in his coaching career.
“As a player he was the underdog, Now he’s not,” Jones said of Ryan. “He was going to fight, going to claw, grasp and talk a little trash. Thomas was a fighter and competitor as a player and is.”
Different paths to title basketball game
Ryan and Jones took different paths to Friday’s championship game. Jones was out of coaching for a year after spending 14 seasons at White Knoll. He spent a year as an assistant with Ben Lee, also a former Lexington player, on the River Bluff boys team before becoming the Gators’ girls head coach for a season.
A year later, he took over at Dutch Fork, which is more known for its football prowess. The Silver Foxes won their fourth straight title in December by defeating Dorman in overtime.
Five members from the football team are part of the Silver Foxes’ top eight players.
Ryan took over the Dorman program in 2007 and has turned it into a nationally ranked program. The Cavs are No. 2 in ESPN’s Top 25 poll and are going for their fourth straight championship. Only two boys teams — Charleston and Calhoun County — have won four titles in a row.
Dorman also has been invited to play in the GEICO Nationals next month in New York.
“I’m happy for Bret to get to this point in his career. It is going to be special for him,” Ryan said. “We are going to embrace it and have a good time. Both of us have great teams and had great seasons. I am happy for him and he is happy for me.
“When the game starts, I don’t know if we will realize who is on the other sidelines. We just want to coach our basketball team the best that night.”
Championship schedule
Where: Colonial Life Arena in Columbia
Tickets: $12 per person (5 and younger free). Clear bag policy in effect.
Friday, March 6
Class 2A Girls
North Charleston vs. Christ Church, 3:30 p.m.
Class 2A Boys
Gray Collegiate vs. Whale Branch, 5 p.m.
Class 5A Girls
Clover vs. Goose Creek, 7 p.m.
Class 5A Boys
Dorman vs. Dutch Fork, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 7
Class A Girls
High Point Academy vs. Military Magnet, 10:30 a.m.
Class A Boys
Great Falls vs. Scott’s Branch, noon
Class 3A Girls
Keenan vs. Marion, 2 p.m.
Class 3A Boys
Keenan vs. Wade Hampton, 3:30 p.m.
Class 4A Girls
North Augusta vs. South Pointe, 5:30 p.m.
Class 4A Boys
Ridge View vs. Myrtle Beach, 7 p.m.
