WS Chronicle

Richard Daniels Jr. led the Walkertown Wolfpack boys basketball team to a 16-10 record and an appearance in the second round of the 2A state playoffs. For his efforts, Daniels was voted coach of the year for the Midstate 2A conference.

“I was just grateful. Being a young coach and kind of trying to figure this coaching journey out in year two, it was kind of surreal,” Daniels said about being named coach of the year for the conference. “My facial expression wasn’t really excited, but I was excited inside, if that makes sense.”

This was Walkertown’s first year in the conference on the 2A level. The award was voted on by the coaches in the conference and Daniels was honored to receive such an honor from his fellow head coaches.

“Like I told the other guys, I appreciated the other coaches that voted because that just shows what they think of me,” he said. “It was kind of like a reflection of our coaching staff. It’s not just me, it’s the coaching staff and the kids; they all play a big part of it.”

In just his second year, Daniels wasn’t expecting to win this award. Winning awards is not why he coaches, but he says it does feel good.

“I was telling one of the assistant coaches that you don’t do this for the individual accolades but just to see the hard work pay off and see what other people think of you feels great,” said Daniels. “I constantly am my biggest critic. After every loss I put a lot of blame on myself for what I could do better. Just to see what people thought about me was a big accomplishment.”

The Wolfpack finished with an 8-4 record in conference play. Two of those losses came to Morehead High School out of Eden. The two teams were also the top two teams in the conference. Daniels and the Wolfpack were able to get over the hump and defeat the Panthers during the conference tournament, giving them revenge when it counted most.

“It was almost like what you expect during the season and honestly, this team had a lot of ups and downs,” said Daniels. “Having a young team, we were trying to gel in the beginning and we had some injuries, so we never really had a chance to gel until the conference tournament.”

Coming off his first year as head coach for the Wolfpack, Daniels was not expecting this much success this season. He felt with the pieces at his disposal, the team would be successful, but they exceeded his expectations.

“After the season we had last year, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Just the pieces we had moving up from JV, the kids that came in as freshmen and having Jeremiah come in as a veteran senior, I knew we would do a lot better; I just didn’t expect us to do this well.

“We had some success in the summertime leading up to the season, but it’s kind of like a false narrative in the summer, because everyone looks good in the summertime. I didn’t expect us to look like we did, but for me to see those guys gel at the right time and to be such a young team, you are looking at the future.”

The Wolfpack only has one senior graduating off this year’s team, so there will be a lot of continuity for next season and expectations will remain high.

“I think for me, my expectations will be high, but it’s really on the guys,” he said about next season. “Even after we lost (in the playoffs), I told them there is no break. For those guys that are doing football and basketball, you have to manage this. If you want to get back to that same spot and be successful the next trip, you’re not going to take a month or two off, you are going to get right back to the drawing board.”

Having only one senior on the roster, there won’t be a lot of room for the guys moving up from the junior varsity level. Daniels says JV coach Kenny Anderson has prepared those guys to fit right in with the varsity team when it’s their time. A few of the JV guys moved up to varsity at the end of the season, so they got a taste of what it’s like on that level.

“They fit right in when they got there and got their opportunity,” Daniels said about his JV players. “We will be graduating five or six seniors next year, so they will get their time. It’s just about getting that year of experience, learning the speed of the game, and getting stronger for those guys moving up.

“Coach Kenny Anderson, I think he has done a hell of a job preparing all of the JV kids. He has won the conference twice. He gets them prepared for sure.”