It has been on the street now for about a month and it is on the web today:Dudley basketball coach David Price has retired

Coach David Price has stepped down as the Dudley Panthers boys basketball coach and it was quite a run for Coach Price……My hunch and it is just that, a hunch, is that Brian Seagraves will be the next boys basketball coach at Dudley….Plenty of good candidates with Brian, Derrick Partee, Coach Everett James, Coach Ferguson, Coach Waddell, but I think it will be Coach Seagraves….Dudley-grad, former Dudley assistant coach and he played a key part in the Dudley success as a player back in the early 90’s….

But really, it doesn’t matter who replaces Coach Price cause he never really showed it outwardly, but he put his heart and soul into that team over the 20 years he was in charge…..He was a man that loved what he was doing and he was a perfect fit for that job along with Coach James, Coach Seagraves, Coach Partee, Coach Ferguson and Coach Waddell for all those years and Coach Robert Johnson joined them this year…….

Coach Price was/is a Dudley Hall of Famer and so was Coach James and Coach Price’s wife was a huge part of that program….She was there for Coach Price, the players, the school and the team all those years..She was the glue that kept it coming through and Skip Mcall, the PA man was there for most of those years too…..

Twenty-plus years for Coach Price and the first title came back in 1996 and the others followed in 2005 and 2006 and there were runnner-up years in say 2000 and 2004-ish…..

I was there for them all….Saw all those big games with the Panthers…..Up in Hickory in 1996 against Gastonia Huss and Kris Lang and that was Thursday and then Saturday facing Titcus Pettigrew and West Forsyth in the West Regional….Then on to Chapel Hill for Richmond County in OT with the Raiders’ Jonathan Neely in the 12 NOON Title Game won by Dudley…..With MVP Braxton Williams, and Vincent Whitt and Brendan Haywood and Coach Price’s son, I believe it was Jermaine Price the PG and of course Derrick Partee and even Coach Ferguson might have been on that team too…..STATE CHAMPS!!!!! Dave Odom from Wake Forest was following them all the way with his assistants, Jerry Wainwright, Ernie Nestor and Frank Haith….They were at almost all of the playoff games……

Then you go on to the other big years like the Overtime win over Pender County in 2000 on a Friday night at East Carolina University……OT with Ryan Brown, Nick Bowden, Dominique Brown, Ricky ‘The Rock’ Lewis, Coach Price’s other son Damien(saw that kid come a long ways, great example of hard work), Steven Sanya, Chris Ferguson, Michael Hayes and the team was missing Eric Hicks, out with an injury….Made it to the State 3-A Finals and came up a bit short without Hicks….

Later on back to Greenville with Hicks, Hayes, Kenny Belton, and then Josh Chavis, Rayshawn Polk, William Graves, Barry Farrell, Jarrell Farrell, Robert Johnson, Marcus Heath, Trey Godette, ‘The Big Cat’ Mike Coger and many more……You had Kevin Swinton, Prince Bowden, Jonathan Hurd was on those teams, the little guard who went to Navy(Brennan Wyatt), he was there…..Then squads with Brandon Pinnix, P.J. Hairston, Reggie Dillard, Sam Hunt, DJ Alston and many many more…..I just like to sit back and remember Coach Price, Coach James, all the assistants and the fun along the way……I was covering the games with men/guys like Jim Pritchett, Jim Gentry, Coach ‘K’ Craig Kabatchnik, David Woodrow Williams, Doug Cockman, Jim Modlin, Dennis White and many others, but it was always great to be around Coach David Price and the Dudley Panthers…..

Enjoy your retirement Coach Price, you deserve it and you earned it….Great job and I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say, “Thanks for the Memories”…..

*****If I left anybody out, go ahead and throw your name in here, and be a part of ‘The Last Ride’….*****

I almost forget my original objective….Here is the link to the News and Record article….CLICK HERE

+++++Sort of a footnote to my post, it almost seems like Coach Price was at Dudley for 50 years, there was so much history involved during his time there, but before Coach Price, you had Steve Hankins, John Patty, Bill Chambers and Jack Chatham….I sit on the same row with Coach Chatham at church each Sunday(Pleasant Garden Methodist) and we don’t talk much basketball, but it is kind of of wild that you had four white coaches in charge at a strong historically black high school before Coach Price came in and took over the program…..+++++ Just an observation from a man on the street……And now after writing all of this today, that is where I am headed, back to the street…..

Add in….We saw John Wall, C.J. Leslie, John Calipari, Roy Williams, Rick Barnes, JT Terrell, Chris Hobbs, Kris Lang, that dude from Durham Hillside that played at Kentucky; I think it was Bobby Jackson, or Bobby Phills, or Bobby Thomas, and so many more come through Dudley over the years…….Against Oak Hill:Ty Lawson, Brandon Jennnings, Quinn Cook, Tyler Lewis and others……..

3 thoughts on “It has been on the street now for about a month and it is on the web today:Dudley basketball coach David Price has retired

  1. Jermaine Price in the 1996 title game at point guard. That team was loaded with Marcus Little and Derrick Hicks coming in off the bench. National ranking in USA today that same yr. Pretty sure Dudley saw Mt Zion when Tracy McGrady was there. Bring on the Seagraves Era.

  2. A couple of more names that I will go back and add to the top list with Brandon Pinnix, ‘The Big Cat’ Mike Coger, Prince Bowden, Barry Farrell and I think it was Barry’ s brother Jarrell Farrell……It was either Barry or Jarrell Farrell that came up big and those key Free Throws that allowed Dudley to beat Crest in Raleigh at the Reynolds Coliseum…..Graves and Swinton couldn’t really carry the team late, but the Farrell kid hit two key FT’s late and that really won the game…..The Farrell kid was huge that night and the next year in the Dean Dome against Concord, the Spiders, Rayshawn Polk came up real big for Dudley in that Championship Game…..

    The unlikely heros are always the ones that carry you home with the trophy…..

  3. Dejuan Morrison class of 04, made it to the state finals. Travis Foster class of 06, got 2 rings. It was Marcus Watson who was a member of the 96′ team. I have really enjoyed watching the Dudley teams play over the years. Hopefully Seagraves or whoever gets the job will continue the tradition.

Comments are closed.