Edwards Heading Into 20th Season At Clay Co.
When coach Rob Edwards took the boys basketball coaching job at Clay County High School, he figured it would only be for a year or two at most.
Fast-forward to 2019, and he’s preparing for his 20th season on the sidelines for the Bulldogs. After getting his degree in Physical Education, Edwards moved to Celina and everything lined up for him to take the job.
“The job came open and I applied and was hired,” Edwards said. “I went to Upperman high school and graduated in 1988, and Larry McCaleb was my coach. I admired him and he was really good to me. That’s what inspired me to do it, was being around him and Frank Medley.”
While it wasn’t what he originally planned, Edwards looks at multiple positives as reasons for him being here 20 years later.
“All three of my kids went to Clay County and graduated,” Edwards said. “I’ve also been fortunate to have a lot of great players through the years … the school system and the county have been really good to me in my time here. I fell into a really good situation.”
This year’s rendition of the Clay County Bulldogs is young and Edwards is expecting growing pains, but he’s also aware of how good this team could be.
“We’re young, I have two seniors and one junior,” Edwards said. “We graduated seven seniors from last year’s squad, so that’s a big loss for us … we’ll go through a learning phase early in the year, but I think by the end of the season, we will have an identity and be much-improved by the time February and March rolls around.”
Edwards is quick to mention how good he believes his sophomore class could be, and he emphasized that when asked about how important having a good pipeline of players is to building and maintaining a program.
“It’s the main ingredient. Anybody who’s been coaching long will tell you that great players make good coaches,” Edwards said. “When you have guys that can score, handle the ball and play defense, it just makes my job a lot easier.”
“These guys can all do that, so I expect that we’ll have a good season. We’ll have bumps in the road, but I think we will be fine in February and March.
