Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.
We have used your information to see if you have a subscription with us, but did not find one. Please use the button below to verify an existing account or to purchase a new subscription.
Your current subscription does not provide access to this content. Please use the button below to manage your account.
Graham boys' basketball coach Kyle Ward shouts instructions to his team during a 2019 game against Cummings. Ward has stepped down as the coach after more than two decades at the school.
Graham boys' basketball coach Kyle Ward shouts instructions to his team during a 2019 game against Cummings. Ward has stepped down as the coach after more than two decades at the school.
Times-News
Times-News
GRAHAM — Kyle Ward was a junior playing on the Graham High School boys’ basketball team when his competitive spirit took over.
Late in a game against Western Alamance, the Red Devils were fouled, but there was confusion about who should be at the free throw line.
Ward ran over to one of his coaches at the time, Mike Williams.
“I told Mike, ‘Hey, they don’t know who’s supposed to be on the line,’” Ward recalled. “He pushed me and said, ‘Go to the line! Go get on the line!’
“I went and got on the line, hit two free throws and we ended up winning by one. I’ve known Mike for a long time and of course I’ve worked with him for 25 years, so he’s been very influential in my life.”
Perhaps that was one of the earliest signs of the fiery competitor Ward would continue to be as a coach.
Ward has stepped down as the Graham boys’ basketball coach, ending a run of 25 years as a coach of numerous teams for the Red Devils. He plans to remain on as the school’s athletics director.
“I just think it's time for somebody else, to give somebody else a shot, and try to breathe a breath of fresh air into our boys’ program,” Ward said. “I'm getting ready to get remarried and blending a family is going to be a challenge, but at the same time, one that I look forward to and it’ll give me more time to be at home, even though I still have to be spending some of my nights at the school as the AD.”
During his coaching career, Ward coached the Graham girls’ basketball team for 12 seasons, taking them to three straight state championship games (2006-09). He later took on the role of the boys’ coach.
“What amazes me is he went to the state finals three years in a row,” said Tommy Cole, Williams High School boys’ coach and a former coach at Graham. “He didn’t win the championship any of the three years, but that’s a great feat. It’s some kind of feat just going three years in a row.”
Ward said those girls’ teams that played for state championships were some of his favorite memories.
Thank you for being a subscriber! It’s your support that keeps The Times-News going.
He also pointed to the 2010-11 girls’ team that won its first three games of the state playoffs on the road before falling to East Bladen in the regional finals. In the regional semifinals, the Red Devils defeated Kinston for Ward’s 200th career victory.
“We were down and came back and Kay Kay Wilson hit a huge 3 to tie the game,” Ward said. “One of their best players who was a freshman got a technical and the very next play — she was mad at herself, she wasn’t mad at nobody else — she just slammed the ball, it went out of bounds on her foot. It was a frustration technical — it wasn’t nothing bad. We went to line, hit two free throws and ended up winning. That was my 200th win, so to win that game and get back to the East Regional finals, that was pretty big.”
Ward took over the athletics director job ahead of this school year after Williams, formerly the longtime AD, retired.
“You probably couldn't ask to take over for a better AD than Mike Williams,” Ward said. “He did it so long, and I still lean heavily on him every day. I'm always asking his advice or making sure I'm doing the right thing. That's a huge person to have in your corner.”
While many of those years coaching the girls were highly successful, the last few years coaching the boys have been a bit of a struggle. The Red Devils won a combined four games in the last two seasons.
“I can't say it didn't play any (role), but it played a little bit,” Ward said. “Basketball has changed so much over the years and I'm more of your old-school type that wants to play inside out and basketball has gotten to the point where it's really not like that anymore. Even though I played guard when I played and I shot the 3 and that's all I wanted to do, as a coach, when I played my senior year, we went inside out because we were so big, and that's just been my philosophy my whole coaching career.”
The wins and losses as of late don’t change Cole’s opinion of Ward.
“That’s how you can tell if a guy can coach,” Cole said. “If he doesn’t have a lot of talent and he coaches the team and they’re losing close games, that shows he’s a pretty good coach.”
David Kehrli is a sports reporter at the Burlington Times-News and USA Today Network. You can reach him at david.kehrli@thetimesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidKehrliTN. Subscribe to the Burlington Times-News here.
