Former Gamecock, veteran Midlands high school basketball coach announces retirement
For the first time in more than a decade, Spring Valley will be looking for a new boys basketball coach.
Longtime coach Perry Dozier announced Tuesday he is stepping down at the end of the season.
“I’m at that stage where it is time to move on. Spring Valley has been nothing but good to me,” Dozier told The State. “I had it in my head about a year ago, and then I said I will do it at the end of this year. I wish we would have had better results but it is that time.”
The Vikings are 1-7 in a COVID-shortened season. Spring Valley has two more games left this season — Wednesday against Northwestern and Friday against Blythewood. .
Dozier has been at Spring Valley for 15 years and his teams have made the postseason in 12 of those seasons. SV made it to the Class 4A Upper State championship game in 2016 before losing to Byrnes.
At Spring Valley, Dozier also got to watch his children excel on the court. He coached his son PJ, who was named a McDonald’s All-American and committed to South Carolina as a five-star prospect. He was part of the Gamecocks’ Final Four team in 2017 and went pro after his sophomore year and went undrafted, but has caught on as a member of the Denver Nuggets and is in his fourth season in the NBA.
Asia Dozier also was a standout at Spring Valley on the girls team and played at South Carolina. She is in her first season as the girls basketball coach at Cardinal Newman.
“My whole purpose was to see my kids through,” Perry Dozier said. “But I fell in love with it. I couldn’t walk away from it even when PJ left. I had such a dynamic group of boys to come through, so it was hard to step away from it.”
Perry said he plans on heading to Denver once his season is over to spend time with his son.
Dozier, a Baltimore native, played at powerhouse Dunbar High School along with his twin brother Terry. The duo known as The Twin Towers were a part of three national championship teams in high school, and both ended up playing at South Carolina in the 1980s.
Dozier will be one of two vacancies Spring Valley must fill on the athletics side — AD Tim Hunter recently announced he is stepping down at the end of the year.
