Judah Jamiel has a clear vision for the Wilmington High School girls basketball program.
“Wilmington basketball is at a respectable level and I embrace the challenge of taking it to new heights, not just with wins and losses but community development … being ambassadors for the school and the program,” said Jamiel.
Jamiel was officially at Monday’s meeting of the Wilmington City Schools Board of Education. He replaces Zach Williams who went 116-70 in eight seasons for the Hurricane.
“I’m full of excitement,” said Jamiel who has been a varsity assistant one season after coaching the eighth grade Hurricane girls two years. “I’m very grateful and humble with the trust Troy and the (search) committee have in me to take the baton from Zach, who’s done a great job with this program.”
Jamiel was one of 14 applicants for the vacant position.
“The only reserve I had was making sure it can work with my job,” said Jamiel, who is sales director with R&L Carriers. “They are my priority. At the same time, I don’t want to cheat the (girls basketball) program. Making sure I could balance everything was key.”
Jamiel, whose two daughters Jasmine and Katlyn were standout WHS athletes, said being a parent of former athletes will help him grow the program.
“First thing, I’m a relationship builder and that’s with both players and parents,” he said. “It’s a challenge. You can’t make it work without them (parents, players) buying in. You have to believe in what you’re doing. Being a former parent that had kids who were recruited (for college) and had major roles on teams, you will disagree (with the coach). There’s a right way and a wrong way to go about (expressing) it.”
Jamiel said he will be an over-communicator and is willing to “listen to everybody.”
Jamiel said becoming involved with the girls youth basketball programs will be a big part of his program overview. Wilmington did not have enough players in the high school program to play a junior varsity schedule. That has been an issue for other sports at WHS and throughout the county as well in recent years.
“I put a lot of focus on to that, how to go after the youth program and engaging them more,” he said. “First, it’s not going to happen overnight. There’s not a button to push. I want a big sister program from varsity to youth. I want the youth to be in the lockerroom, sit on the bench, have water redy for the players during timeouts.”
Jamiel said Williams “blessed me with the ability to run” with a hotshot contest during games and begin implementing a big sister phase.
“We assigned three girls to a (youth) team, to fourth-, fifth-, sixth-graders and they went to practice when our schedule allowed it,” said Jamiel. “We saw an influx of youth at our games. It was year one of doing that and I’d like to grow that more. I want to add a reading program … just be available. Little things matter. The way we engage with them (youth) is important to grow our youth numbers.”
With the high school players involved, Jamiel believes it gives them more ownership and gives them a greater sense of value in all aspect of the program.
As for the on-court ideals, Jamiel said, “We’re going to press, get up and down the floor. We’re not going to slow things down. It’ll be a fun style. We want to challenge people defensively and do everything to raise our skill level to have as many people as possible who can dribble, pass and shoot.”
