Weldon coach will change his routine

By: Mason Linker | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: March 11, 2009

Any coach fortunate enough to have his team make a return trip to a state-championship game has at least one easy decision to make.

If his team won, he often will try to retrace footsteps and not change a thing. If it lost, then he eventually decides what he might do differently given another chance.

Coach Donnell Handsome of Weldon will take his basketball team by bus to Raleigh on Saturday morning for the NCHSAA 1-A boys championship against Bishop McGuinness. Tipoff will be at 2:30 at N.C. State's Reynolds Coliseum.

There will be no overnight hotel stays for the Chargers. Handsome said he threw out that idea after his team lost to Hayesville in the 2004 championship game. The Chargers led that game by as many as 11 in the third quarter but were outscored 19-0 at the end and lost 70-56.

"Putting them in a motel, it's hard to keep up with them," Handsome said. "Making sure they are in bed on time and then not knowing how late they will be up playing games on TV.

"But the last time we went has helped me a lot to prepare them and myself, also. I am a little more relaxed this time. I was uptight from the beginning in 2004."

Weldon, with only three days of practice under its belt, lost its season-opener to Bertie in November but followed with 26 straight victories, using an aggressive, uptempo style.

Desmond and Demond Faulcon, senior guards and identical twins, set the tempo. Desmond, a right-handed point guard, averages 20.3 points. Demond, a left-handed shooting guard, averages 10.3.

"A lot of people have trouble telling them apart, and I do, too," Handsome said, joking that he wouldn't switch their numbers for Saturday's game. "They put a lot of pressure on the ball, and that's my game. Once they get into the flow, it's hard to stop. We try to score in transition, and they bring it to you hard.

"Desmond is a little bit better. He is more of a type that will take the ball in there no matter what. His brother is more the type to sit outside and shake you off or shoot the 3."

Although Weldon prefers to run, it also has a formidable post game to battle McGuinness' height inside. Nehemiah Pulley (6-5) is a shot-blocker and rebounder, and Eric Jones (6-4, 225) is a battler who averages 8.4 rebounds and 6.3 points.

Handsome has the luxury of depth, and he uses it for wholesale substitution.

"I will swap the whole lineup out, and so far it has worked real good for me," Handsome said. "I give the first five a chance to get some water and watch the flow of the game. We don't lose a lot. We lose a little offense, but we pick up the tempo on defense."

Handsome said that in his brief scouting reports on McGuinness, he sees a team that is big and fundamentally sound.

"I am not going to change anything," Handsome said. "We play a lot of fullcourt pressure man-to-man, and we will run the floor. We hope we can wear them down in the second half.

"The community is real excited. This week we have a lot of things going on at the school, a pep rally on Friday and the mayor of the town will come over. There are a lot of things going on for them. In practice they seem real up. We had a good practice (Monday). They are real excited and ready to go."

■ Coming Thursday: A look at the 1-A girls final between Bishop McGuinness and East Bladen.

■ Mason Linker can be reached at 727-7324 or at mlinker@wsjournal.com.