Secret to Tim Whipple’s 800 wins? His former basketball players at Irmo can tell you
The names and faces might have changed in the Irmo basketball program but one constant has remained — Tim Whipple.
Whipple is in his 41st season guiding the Yellow Jackets program. On Saturday, the hall-of-fame coach set another milestone by winning his 800th game following a 69-36 win over Chapin.
Whipple joins former Great Falls coach John Smith as the second boys basketball coach in South Carolina history to win 800 games or more. Smith is the state’s all-time wins leader with 943. He retired in 2016.
“What he does and continues to do is amazing,” said Jordan Roper, a member of Irmo’s 2011 state championship team who went on to play at Clemson. “He constantly finds ways to connect with young men and sees the potential of what they can become.
“The world has changed in a number of ways. AAU has grown in relevance, social media has grown, the opportunity to play college basketball has grown and the information to go about that. He has had to navigate all that and kept the standard for success. The average coach wouldn’t have the ability to adapt but coach Whipple has done that.”
Roper got to see both sides of Whipple during his time as a player and then a year when he was an assistant coach at Irmo before taking a job with Clemson’s fundraising organization, IPTAY.
“He is a coaching legend, an unbelievable teacher, a father figure, a mentor that pours into young men that are part of his program and develops them into contributing members of society,” Roper said.
‘Laying the foundation’
Whipple began his career as an assistant coach at Lexington after graduating from Erskine College. After Lexington, he was a JV coach at Winnsboro High before landing at Irmo. The Spring Valley grad spent two seasons as Irmo JV coach before being promoted to head coach in the 1981-82 season.
Speaking on the Lost Letterman podcast earlier this year, Whipple talked about those early years setting the tone of what was to come for the Yellow Jacket program.
“I have a basketball from 1981 and says laying the foundation,” Whipple said. “That is what we were doing then, laying the foundation for the future. I never knew we were going to get there. But it was the start. Every young man that played on those teams before we arrived, I give them credit. They didn’t reap the benefits, but they can look back and see it. They come and look up at the banners when they visit and that means a lot to them.”
That foundation helped build one of the top programs in the Columbia area for the past four decades. Irmo has made the postseason in 37 of Whipple’s 40 years at the helm, and is likely on its way to another playoff appearance this year. The Yellow Jackets are ranked No. 2 in the latest Class 4A SC Basketball Coaches poll.
Team success
Whipple has led Irmo to 10 state championship appearances, winning five and capturing 19 region titles. Irmo’s first championship team in 1991 featured Marvin Orange, who went on to win the 1992 SC Gatorade Player of the Year and play at Alabama.
More than 40 of Whipple’s players have gone on to college and he makes it a point every year to visit his former players to watch them play.
“Coach Whipple is the best coach I ever played for, I won’t hesitate to say that and probably one of the best people I have ever known,” Orange said on a recent episode of the Lost Letterman podcast. “He had a big impact on me personally. He gave me confidence when I didn’t have it.
“He taught me the game so well and I will never forget that. Always been a great coach but people don’t realize how special of a person he was. He was a fiery coach but knew how to teach the game. He gets guys to buy into a team concept.”
Training the next generation
The Yellow Jackets’ best run came in the early 1990s when they appeared in six state championship games in seven seasons from 1991-1997. BJ McKie was part of that stretch and was on the back-to-back state title teams in 1994-95.
McKie went on to a hall-of-fame playing career at South Carolina and is in his second season as an assistant coach at Wake Forest.
“It was fun,” McKie said of the two straight championships. “But at the same time, coach Whipple wouldn’t accept nothing but the best from you. If you didn’t bring the best, whether it was in practice or in games. He would criticize you, get on you and make sure you were the best you could be. He would also praise you when you needed to be praised.
“He respected you whether you were a superstar or the last man on the bench. He would always treat you the same.”
McKie said he tries to apply many things learned under Whipple now that he is a coach. He hopes that he could have the longevity and the ability to adapt over the years.
Irmo went more than a decade between championships when it won it all in 2011. Two years later, the Yellow Jackets won it again with Detrek Browning and Justin McKie, BJ’s son, leading the way.
Irmo went 29-0 and finished the year ranked No. 13 in USA Today Top 25. The Yellow Jackets’ last championship appearance came in 2018 when they made a surprise run before losing to Dorman, which won the first of its four championships that season.
“A lot of times people would say the game has passed him or he needs to hang it up,” McKie said. “He always finds a way to reach out to his players and get the best from them and find a way to win.
“When I think about coach Whipple, I think dedication, sacrifice and a champion.”
This story was originally published December 18, 2021 at 7:37 PM.
