It was a potential recipe for disaster — a first-year head coach succeeding a legend at a program accustomed to success and expecting nothing less.
No problem, or at least it seemed that way for Kinston’s Perry Tyndall, who guided the Vikings to a 28-2 mark and a second consecutive 2A state championship.
Make no mistake about it. It wasn’t as easy as it looked.
“I definitely felt some pressure, taking over for a great coach like Wells (Gulledge), who accomplished so many amazing things here,” said Tyndall, The Free Press’ 2012-13 boys coach of the year.
“I was fortunate to step into a great situation with a tremendous group of assistant coaches and some unbelievable, hard-working kids. Winning a state championship is always difficult, but having the pleasure of working with these coaches and players was the easy part.”
Tyndall brought the same defense-first philosophy to the Vikings that he helped pioneer as a long-time assistant with his former mentor.
“I’ve always believed that a good, aggressive defense leads to easy opportunities on the offensive end,” Tyndall said. “Luckily, I had great athletes and kids with high basketball IQs to execute our plan. I was also blessed with kids who bought in to what we were trying to do and make my transition to head coach almost seamless.”
Tyndall proved his coaching acumen after the previously undefeated Vikings lost consecutive games in the HighSchoolOT.com Holiday Invitational over the Christmas break.
The second defeat came against Waxhaw Cuthbertson, the team Kinston knocked off in both the 2012 and 2013 state championship games. The loss came in particularly excruciating fashion as KHS blew a 13-point lead and failed to score a point in the fourth quarter.
It was a teachable moment that Tyndall made the most of. His team didn’t lose again, finishing the season with a 19-game winning streak that included the title-clinching, revenge-earning 56-53 triumph over Cuthbertson in the Dean E. Smith Center.
“The kids responded so well to those losses at Christmas,” Tyndall said. “My job as head coach was to make sure they understood the pain felt by those losses, but it was the kids who took those lessons to heart and used them as motivation the rest of the season.”
As far as the future is concerned, Tyndall understands that his first-year success will only increase expectations.
“We lost nine seniors last year and recovered. We lose eight seniors this year. It will be tough, but I’m fortunate to coach at a place that always seems to have a lot of chicken in the chicken salad.”
