He guided junior varsity girls to 18-0 record
last season, Northwestern 3A-4A title
COUGARS’ NUMBERS
The last 10 seasons of girls’ varsity basketball at Alexander Central High:
Year Head coach Record
17-18 Jonathan Winkler 2-23
16-17 Jacob Lail 4-20
15-16 Jacob Lail 16-11
14-15 Brad Mangum 23-7
13-14 Brad Mangum 19-8
12-13 Matt Taylor 28-2
11-12 Matt Taylor 21-8
10-11 Matt Taylor 9-15
09-10 Matt Taylor 6-19
08-09 Nikki Setzer 0-24
TOTALS 128-137
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com research and files
HobbsDailyReport.com
TAYLORSVILLE – Larry Sharpe, head coach of the Alexander Central High junior varsity girls’ basketball team the last 10 years, has been elevated to interim head coach for next season.
The Alexander Central athletic department announced Sharpe’s new position in a press release.
He has also served as a varsity girls’ assistant for the past 10 seasons with five different head coaches.
Alexander Central’s JV went 18-0 last season, including 8-0 in conference games.
“With the summer fast approaching and an off-season workout plan needing to be in place, we feel naming Coach Sharpe as the interim head coach is in the best interest of our basketball program,” Alexander Central Athletic Director Nathan Robinson said in the press release. “Coach Sharpe will be running the summer workout program and will be in charge of organizing camps as well.”
Robinson said the search for a new girls’ head coach continues and the school is taking applications and resumes by email at nrobinson@alexander.k12.nc.us.
Alexander Central went 2-23 last season, including an eighth-place finish (1-13) in the Northwestern 3A-4A under Jonathan Winkler, who resigned after one season.
Sharpe or the next girls’ varsity coach hired will be the fourth in six years for the Cougars and their 13th since the 1984-85 season.
After going 21-8 and making their only West Regional appearance under Matt Taylor in 2011-12, the Cougars went 133-41 in a six-year stretch with six state playoff appearances.
Prior to that, they’d had 15 consecutive losing seasons and 19 losing records in 20 years.
Alexander Central is 6-43 on the tail end of that six-year stretch of its most successful period in girls’ varsity basketball.
The change of coaches at Alexander Central is the only one among girls’ head coaches in the Northwestern 3A-4A since last season ended.
The league will have new boys’ head coaches next season at South Caldwell (Danny Anderson, moving from Maiden) and Watauga (Laura Berry, who will continue to coach the varsity girls as well).
