Nick Christy has worked at bigger schools and coached in higher classifications.
Christy also has taken time away from coaching, which has helped him appreciate how much he enjoys working with student-athletes.
Christy hopes to continue that work for a long time at West Lowndes High School.
Last week, the Lowndes County School Board approved Christy as the school’s new boys basketball coach.
In the 2016-17 school year, Christy served as assistant coach to Torrey Dale, who announced in May he was returning to coach the girls and boys basketball teams at Durant High, his alma mater. West Lowndes lost to reigning Class 1A State champion Ashland 71-67 in the quarterfinals of the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 1A State tournament at Jackson State’s Williams Assembly Center to finish 18-14.
Christy, a Mississippi State graduate, led Lake Cormorant High, a MHSAA Class 5A member school, to the playoffs in three of his four seasons as varsity boys basketball coach. In all, he spent eight years as a teacher and as a coach at Lake Cormorant. Christy’s teaching position at West Lowndes hadn’t bee finalized at press time.
“I have no plans to leave,” said Christy, who owns a home in West Lowndes and has been busy renovating it. “I hope to bring stability to the program. I am not planning to use West Lowndes as a stepping stone. I already have had bigger jobs.”
Christy, who will be the program’s fourth head coach in four years, feels last season was a great year for him to watch and to learn from a different seat on the sideline. He said he missed basketball after he stepped away from his job at Lake Cormorant High so he and his wife could move to Columbus to allow her to take a job. He said the year he spent away from coaching made him appreciate working and mentoring and being able to “pour into these young men’s lives.”
Christy intends to continue what he and Dale accomplished last season. He doesn’t think there will be a huge transition period because many of the players know him and understand his expectations. Christy said his goal is to be a positive role model for his players and to get better every day as a coach.
“I am not going to sit here and say we’re going to be an up-tempo team, but we will get up the floor,” Christy said when asked about the style he hopes to have the Panthers play. “We are going to push it when we have numbers and when we don’t we are going to be disciplined enough to realize it is not a good opportunity.”
Christy’s Panthers will have to take that next step without rising senior point guard Casey “C.J.” Smith, who has transferred to Columbus High. Christy feels there still is enough talent at West Lowndes for the Panthers to make another run at a state championship. He said he is eager to work at a school where basketball attracts so much attention. His goal is to help his student-athletes reach their potential on and off the court.
“I am happy to continue to be at West Lowndes,” Christy said. “Our administration has been doing some really great things. Everyone is working really hard at West Lowndes.”
Dale praised the decision to have Christy lead the program. He said he didn’t realize Christy, who he knew from Lake Cormorant from his days as coach at H.W. Byers High, was at West Lowndes. Dale said it worked out great because he took care of the defense and Christy handled the offense for the Panthers.
“He is real good at developing individual talent,” Dale said. “Behind the scenes he was essential to our success.”
Dale said Christy helped with drills and provided a valuable second pair of eyes that contributed to the team’s run to Jackson. He said the players respected Christy as much as they did him and that he will help keep West Lowndes in the hunt for a Class 1A State championship, even without Smith at point guard.
“We were co-coaches last year,” Dale said. “He did his part to see to it we got another shot at Ashland. He deserves this shot. He waited his time and paid his dues.”
As for Smith, Dale said Columbus High coach Anthony Carlyle is getting a standout who will help take the pressure off senior Robert Woodard II, the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
“Casey has a unique talent and IQ,” Dale said. “He never got rattled. … He is a good reader and reactor. Casey was our glue. He made the right play every time. He was just what you needed, a general. A general makes the best decisions for everyone in the unit. It was never about him. He sacrificed a lot of shots a lot of nights to keep other people happy because he knew they would play defense if he did that.
“Any coach who gets Casey, you thank God because it is a blessing. I am glad he is getting a bigger stage because he was so disrespected in Class 1A. I am glad I got the privilege to coach him for one year. He is going to make Robert’s job so much easier. Now they have a dual-threat who is capable of putting up the same numbers as Robert.”
Smith didn’t return a phone call seeking comment.
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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