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Wade HughesCoffee High SchoolDouglas, Georgia by Robert Preston, Jr. photography by J. Langford & R. Preston, Jr. |
Most coaches follow a familiar path to a head coaching position. They usually start out as assistants, maybe even at the middle school level, and then move their way into a head coaching job. That’s not the way Wade Hughes, head basketball coach at Coffee High, entered the coaching field. He graduated from college and immediately found a head coaching job. And, with the exception of two years, he’s been a head coach ever since. After graduating from Valdosta High School, Hughes enrolled at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville. He was a guard on the Bobcats’ basketball team for all four years of his college career. When he graduated from GCSU, he knew it was time to go to work. And to Hughes, that meant one thing: coaching. “It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do,” he says. He landed a job with the Richmond Hill Wildcats. He was 22 years old, fresh out of college and a head coach. He stayed at Richmond Hill for two years before moving on to Fitzgerald High, where he also stayed for two years. From there he went to Broxton High School, located in northern Coffee County. At the time, Coffee County had three high schools: Coffee High, Broxton High and Nicholls High. Though smaller than Coffee High, Broxton and Nicholls always had good basketball teams, and the three Coffee schools played some legendary games during those years. Coach Hughes taught some very talented players during his stint at Broxton. Maybe the best of that period was Pernell Smith, who went on to play Division I basketball at Northwest State University in Louisiana. During those years, NW State beat Kentucky once, and Smith was named MVP of that game. He would go on and play in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) and overseas. Interestingly, Smith figures prominently in Hughes’ career at Coffee High. In the middle of the 1980’s, the idea of consolidating the three junior high schools and high schools in Coffee County into one surfaced. When it became apparent that such a move was going to happen, Hughes began looking for another opportunity. He found one at South Georgia College in Douglas. He ended up making the right move; the schools consolidated in 1990. In 1987, Coach Hughes took over the SGC Tigers. At South Georgia, he had the opportunity to coach several local players. The Tigers were a successful program under his leadership, averaging 16 or 17 wins from 1987 until 1995, the final year of the basketball program at SGC. The Tigers had six winning seasons and three seasons of 20-plus wins. More than once, SGC played in the national tournament in Michigan, and a number of Hughes’ players advanced to Division I or Division II programs. |
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Then, in 1995, the college pulled the plug on the basketball program. Hughes stayed on staff at South Georgia as a teacher. But he was out of coaching, and remained as such for two years. Then the head coaching position at Coffee High became available. Hughes landed the job, and has been there ever since. He and his staff have done remarkable work at Coffee. The program had fallen on hard times when Coach Hughes arrived. In the school’s previous 92 games, the Trojans had only won 18 times. Coffee only had one way to go – up. And that’s exactly what happened. In his career at Coffee, Hughes’ Trojans have averaged 20 wins per season and won three region championships. Their most recent region title came last year. This season, the Trojans finished second in the region. A few years ago, Coffee made it to the Elite Eight – the deepest a Wade Hughes Trojan team has advanced in the playoffs. “With the postseason, there’s a lot of luck involved. It all depends on the bracket you get. You just have to wait and see. When we went to the quarterfinals, we went in as the third seed. So you just never know,” he says. Coach Hughes wants his teams to succeed. In order for that to happen, he has to have the best athletes in the school on his team. Consequently, he’s not selfish and doesn’t mind sharing his players. Over half the 2008-2009 team played football and weren’t able to play basketball until the Trojans’ playoff run ended. Once the football players get on the basketball court, it takes them about four weeks to adjust. But, says Hughes, the team, the program and the kids all benefit in the long run. “The structure of playing football and basketball helps the kids keep their grades up,” he says. They also stay occupied, which translates into staying out of trouble. In nearly 30 years of coaching, some things about the game and players have changed. Hughes believes the players today are faster, quicker and more athletic than they were when he started coaching. However, they aren’t as fundamentally sound. First and foremost, he wants to be a teacher of the game. He emphasizes fundamentals, teamwork and conditioning. He cites his biggest challenge as trying to develop team chemistry. That can be complicated by what the kids see in the media. Highlight reels are fun to watch, but the SportsCenter culture has taken away from the team and placed the spotlight on individuals. “The kids look up to the professional players. They see what they do and want to emulate how they play. But the game is losing its team influence. It’s not the Cavaliers against the Lakers anymore; it’s LeBron against Kobe,” he says. For that reason, Hughes prefers the college game over the NBA. As difficult as it may be to overcome the growing individualism that is so prevalent in basketball (and all sports, for that matter), Hughes and his staff have done a good job of building a cohesive team. His players enjoy the competition, and they play well together. They buy into his system and more often than not will put their personal ambitions aside and do what’s best for the team. Earlier this season, Coach Hughes surpassed an important milestone in the career of a basketball coach. He won his 500th game, and he isn’t showing any signs of slowing down (as of this writing, with one regular season game to go, Hughes has 510 career wins). He’s also quick to give credit to his coaching staff, in particular to Pernell Smith, his former player from Broxton who currently serves as Coffee High’s assistant coach. “He’s the best assistant basketball coach in high school. We’re a team, and we coach together. It’s not just me out there,” he says. Heading into the final game of the season, Coach Hughes’ Trojans are 20-3 and have a lock on the second seed in the region tournament. • | |
January 2012
Robert Preston Jr. 
Micki K Photography 
