Meet The Coaches, Who really runs the show?

How important is a good coach? A good coach is the foundation of any good team and Coach Terry Sellers, Head Coach of the Bobcats, is the foundation for Georgia College & State University men’s basketball.

Starting in his ninth year as men’s basketball coach, Coach Sellers loves his job.

“I always wanted to be a coach. I had really good coaches when I was younger, and that helped me with my decision to become a coach,” said Sellers.

Sellers spent nine years at Alabama Southern Community College where his team averaged 22 wins per year. Overall, Sellers has posted a 342-143 record, with a 144-81 mark as the Bobcats’ coach. With his good overall records, Sellers makes his team a contender year in and year out, which is part of the reason GC&SU wanted Sellers to coach the men’s team. During the 1996-1997 year, Sellers was named Peach Belt Coach of the Year after leading the team to a Peach Belt Championship.

“After nine years at Alabama Southern, I wanted to experience coaching basketball at a four-year school,” said Sellers. “When I started to look for a job, GC&SU was hiring, and it was a great opportunity for me.”

Sellers has guided the Bobcats to three Peach Belt Conference Championships (1997, 1999 & 2000), two PBC Tournament Championships (1997 & 1999), an NCAA Regional Championship (2000) and has been to the NCAA Tournament three times (1997, 1999 & 2000).

In 2000, Coach Sellers led the Bobcats to their finest season in school history. That team went to the Elite Eight after winning the NCAA South Atlantic Regional. The team finished the season with an 11-0 home record and overall 25-6. The Atlanta Tip-off Club also named Sellers the NCAA Division II Coach of the Year. With this fabulous season, Sellers broke the school record for victories with a win over Gardner-Webb in the NCAA Tournament.

“I have been blessed to have so many good teams, and for that matter, so many good players,” said Sellers.

Sellers is also a big family man, with a wife and two children: Sara Catherine age 21 and Cooper age18.

“I have the perfect coach’s wife, she has supported me through everything; the good times and the bad times. She is always there to listen to me and she never gets tired of hearing about basketball,” said Sellers.

Sellers also has two great assistant coaches to help him with the team.

“Earl Grant has the potential to be an outstanding basketball coach. He always makes a good impression on everyone and the sky is the limit for him,” said Sellers. “Assistant Coach David Sokol puts a lot of hours into his job, and he is always prepared. I expect he will make a fine head coach when he feels he is ready and that opportunity is presented to him,” said Sellers.

Assistant Coach David Sokol is a perfect fit for GC&SU. This is his sixth season as the Bobcats’ assistant coach. After serving as a graduate assistant for two years coach, Sellers asked Sokol to stay on staff as the men’s assistant coach.

“I love competition and love the attitude of basketball. I love the players and feeling the intensity from the fans behind me,” said Sokol. “I coached at high school for three years, and I wanted to get to the collegiate level and when the opportunity arise for the graduate assistant job here I jumped on it!”

Sokol coached baseball and was an assistant coach of basketball at North Forsyth High School. Prior to that he was an assistant coach at East Paulding High School for the 1993-94 season.

“My high school coach was my inspiration in becoming a coach. He was a big influence on my life; just his determination and showing me how to be disciplined and teaching me that in order to achieve something that I must work hard for it,” said Sokol. “He was not just a basketball coach but a role model to me, and I wanted to be that, too.”

Originally from Brookfield, Il, Sokol graduated with a degree in Interrelated Special Education from West Georgia College in Carrollton, Ga in 1993. Sokol started out at Gordon Junior College on a baseball
scholarship.

“My first love is basketball, but I had more opportunities in baseball,” said Sokol.

With being at GC&SU for six years, Sokol has made many great memories, but still his favorite thing in the world is when something just clicks on someone.

“I like to see a player working and working until one day, he just get it. To me that is the greatest feeling in coaching,” said Sokol.

Recently Sokol just got married. He feels that his wife is a great partner
because she can understand everything he must do for the team. With recruiting and practices always in store for Sokol, his wife knows how important this is to him.

“Coach Sellers wants input so we can make the program better, and he is great to work with,” Sokol said. “Grant played for us for two years , and this is his first year in office. The players like working with him, and he is going to be a great coach one day.”

Earl Grant is entering his first of what seems to a long coaching career. Last season Grant was student assistant and now is the graduate assistant of the team, but, Grant is no stranger to the Bobcat program following a brilliant two-year career as GC&SU’s point guard.

“After finishing player here, I thought it would be a good opportunity to start coaching here,” said Grant. “I knew I wanted to coach and started off thinking about high school, but after being with Sellers and Sokol, I wanted to get on the staff.”

Grant had this to say about Sellers and Sokol.

“The both of them are just incredible to work with. When I was playing for them they had certain demands, but now as a member of the coaching staff, I have a new list of demands from them,” Grant said. “If I a wish to work with any two people it would be Coach Sellers and Coach Sokol.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Nov 30 2001. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry