William Wirt Basketball Team Benefits from Coaches Who Go the Extra Mile

Once in a while, a group of young athletes and coaches come together to produce something special. Something beyond winning. Something where victories come as a byproduct of success in other areas.

Such was the case this year with the boys basketball team at .

The team, which was made up of seventh and eighth graders, completed an undefeated (8-0) regular season for the first time in the school’s history, securing the Prince George’s Middle School Region 2 championship. Led by eighth grader  Jwaun Gallman and seventh grader Joseph Hampton, the team won its first playoff game against Samuel Ogle, and then lost in the county semifinals to Thomas Johnson, finishing 9-1 for the season.

While the wins were outstanding, they could never have been without the guidance of coaches Grayling Chandler and Sheldon Dunbar, who took their roles further than just teaching plays and making substitutions.

In the early weeks of the season, the coaches asked the players to write a paper explaining the game of basketball and to bring it to practice the next day.

“I told each of them to write an essay on the essence of basketball,” Dunbar said. “I wanted to teach what it’s all about, because basketball is not about running and scoring points. Once we started teaching them, everybody started following all together.”

Exercises like the essay project exhibit the coaches’ philosophy that they used with the team all year.

“We liked to say, ‘One team, one goal,’” Dunbar said. “The goal is discipline and we coach about discipline.”

One way the coaches instilled discipline was by enforcing a dress code for their players on game days.

“We taught them to be role models for the school,” Dunbar said. “On game days we had them dress up. That tradition of being focused was the main thing that we were trying to teach these boys, and other teachers and people at the school really started to notice it.”

One school staff member who took note was Stacey Montgomery, William Wirt’s library media specialist.

“The [coaches] are phenomenal role models as well as educators,” she said. “Their relationship [with the boys] was almost fatherly. It was a beautiful thing to watch.”

Dunbar and Chandler's approach to coaching is just as Montgomery described – fatherly.

"We taught them basketball skills and life skills through basketball as much as possible," Chandler said. "I couldn't be more proud of these kids. They made up for lack of natural basketball talent through working hard. You can't take anything away from someone who is working hard."

Although the season has ended, several players from this year’s squad will return as eighth graders next year to make another run at a county championship. With Coaches Chandler and Dunbar at the helm, they are sure to have a shot.

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This story has been corrected. In a previous version of this story, Jwaun Gallman's name was misspelled. We regret the error.