After budget crunch, one coach leads boys and girls team to state quarterfinals
It's an incredible accomplishment for any coach to lead his team to the quarterfinals of a state tournament. Charlemagne Gibbons can do that feat one better: The longtime basketball coach just led two teams to the Elite Eight … at the same time.
As documented by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gibbons led the Morgan County (Ga.) High boys basketball team and Morgan County girls basketball team to their respective state quarterfinals. Gibbons now serves as the ultimate throwback, a coach who leads teams of both different sexes in the same sport for the same school.
Clearly, Morgan County is getting a heck of a lot more bang for their buck.
"I'm just a basketball guy," Gibbons told the Journal-Constitution."I want to keep doing them both."
Of course, Gibbons hasn't always been the coach of two different teams simultaneously. Rather, a severe budget shortfall in the 2010-11 school year forced Morgan County to search for ways to save money anywhere they could. Gibbons offered to do his part by adding the girls basketball team to his existing role leading the boys team.
The results since have been incredible. After finishing 11-15 in 2010-11, the Morgan County boys improved to 25-4 in 2011-12. Gibbons attributes much of that success to the rise of the Morgan County girls team, which reached the state quarterfinals in 2010-11.
As for that girls team, the female Bulldogs are an incredible 28-1 and are considered to have a very real shot at reaching a state title game.
"They feed off each other," Gibbons told the Journal-Constitution. "The girls pushed the boys and they've really improved this year. They really matured over the summer."
No matter how much they may have learned from each other, both Bulldogs squads have clearly learned even more from Gibbons, who continues to adeptly navigate leading two teams with very different needs and personalities without missing a beat.
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