CHARLOTTE – Basketball practice began rather unceremoniously on October 28th, almost a month to the day after a generational storm blew through campus.
Hardly an auspicious start.
Sports were very much an afterthought in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Still, there was an anticipation and excitement bubbling in the Greenie Dome for a collection of players – who as it turns out, were just as invested in each other as we were in them.
Back-to-back state champion Christ School was THE team to beat all season long in NCISAA 4-A basketball and answered destiny’s call with a three-peat, bookended by Saturday night’s 73-50 win over Carmel Christian.
Poetically, the site for the game was Charlotte Providence Day. It was this same gym where the program worthy of being called a Blue Blood dynasty won the first of its nine state championships in 2005.
Scorers for the Greenies (26-2) Saturday were Mikey Wilkins ‘25 (19 points), Mason Collins ‘28 (18), Dacen Petty ‘26 (18), Madden Collins ‘25 (eight), Tyler Jones ‘26 (six), Jo Ahart ‘25 (two), and Jimmy Jones ’25 (two).
“It was good to be the hunted. It’s the first time we’ve come in as the No. 1 seed and it felt good,” Coach Josh Coley said.
“It was very satisfying and exciting to see them accept the challenge and fight. You can go through lulls when you win several games and find yourself lollygagging a little bit during practice. But they brought the juice every day.”
“What mattered the most to them is winning,” Coach Coley continued.
“Then it turned into Mikey wanting to win it for (Dacen) because he’d never won before. And they wanted to win for Tyler because he’s up at 5:30 every morning. Guys wanted to win for each other, so it became a full group effort. That’s all you can ask for, a player-held accountable program.”
The Greenies now take their rightful place alongside eight other Christ School state championship teams – 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2023, and 2024. Those other teams were great in their own right. However, the fan support that the group received Saturday night, both in number and passion, was off the charts.
The student section, standing directly behind the team’s bench, obeyed the mandate from the state association to not storm the court under any circumstances, but they didn’t have to. In their postgame joy, players wandered out into the sea of suits and ties in a display of authentic brotherhood.
Carmel (18-9) was the No. 2 seed and a game opponent. Mikey had all his points in the first half and Christ School led 34-26 at halftime. The Greenies did not really break away until the final three minutes of the third quarter. Dacen connected on three 3-pointers during that stretch, and Madden made an absolute dagger, boarding a missed dunk, taking a couple steps back, and sinking a 3 just before the buzzer sounded. Madden left his shooting hand (right) up for emphasis as he knew what a 46-27 lead entering the fourth quarter foretold.
“(Carmel) was prepared. They were a great team, a great coach, and obviously Bryce (Slay) is a great player,” Coach Coley said.
“We expected them to be very prepared, we prepared our guys for the fact that it wasn’t going to be like the fourth game of the season. They’re fighting to win a state championship just like we are. We took some punches. It’s a game of runs, they made a run, we made a run. Kinda like our season, when you take punches, you punch back.”
The Greenies have five seniors – Jimmy, Jo, Madden, Mikey, and Henry Chapman ’25 – but they’re not done yet. Coach Coley informed the team after the game that they have been invited by Nike to next month’s EYBL Scholastic Conference Tournament in North Augusta, Ga. Christ School should get to play three times between March 5th and March 8th against opponents yet to be determined.