Diary Series: Andre Gray, Asst. Coach - UNCW ('A season of New')

As I was sitting around thinking about what to write my first entry about many things came to mind. I thought this would be a lot easier then it is has been because anyone who knows me knows I have an opinion about pretty much everything! Some of it may be a little whacky, like my rule about recruiting players who walk around with their mouths open all the time... or my philosophy about what happens when you have too many nice kids on one team. In fact, I’m sure I will get deeper into some of my recruiting rules at a later date but I’m going to make this one about the NEW.

This is my first season with the Seahawks of UNCW. This is an opportunity that I am extremely excited about for many reasons. I get to walk in the office and speak to my NEW head coach Buzz Peterson -- who has to be one of the coolest head coaches in college basketball. As a staff, we have already established a great dynamic around the office even though we have two NEW members on staff (myself and Dante Calabria as Director of Basketball Operations) and two other guys in NEW roles (Brooks Lee - Assistant Coach, Jamie Kachmarik - Associate Head Coach). This is huge, as anyone who been in this business understands how important staff dynamics are to team success. This business is high pressured enough and the last thing you want to do is be miserable around the office when you get to work.

We also are welcoming nine NEW members to the team (Freddie Jackson, Cedric Williams, Adam Smith, KK Simmons, Dylan Sherwood, Craig Ponder, Luke Hager, Nate Anderson and Alex Kilmartin). We also have NEW leadership roles for all of our returnees (Keith Rendleman, Tanner Milson, Donta Morales, Matt Wilson and Trevor Deloach), NEW inspirational roles for (Cam Chambers and Shane Reybold), and redshirt freshman Keegan Pace finds himself in a NEW role after redshirting last season. Even our graduate managers are NEW in (John Lattimore and Josh Snyder).  All of them will be wearing NEW Jordan uniforms as the men’s basketball team makes the transition from Adidas to Jumpman.

Our facilities took on a NEW look as well. We added a NEW scoreboard to center-court and to the end zones, NEW chair back seating to the lower level of Trask, NEW seating arrangements for the fans, band, and parents, NEW logos in each end zone area, NEW Conference Championships Banners, NEW logo at half court, NEW placement of team benches and NEW scorers table.

With all the NEW that is surrounding the program, the funny thing is that the game hasn’t changed much. Goals are still 10 feet tall, balls are still round, and the team which holds its opponent to less points will WIN. With all the NEW in our program it is definitely going to be a process but the key is to embrace the NEW!! Everyday is a NEW day so all we can do is live that day and that moment to the fullest.

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