Fort Gay, W. Va. — Former Rebel Brian Stacy comes back to home to lead the Tolsia Boys Basketball Program.
Stacy graduated in 1988 which was the first class in Tolsia history and was a starter on the first team to play at Rebel Arena. Now he returns to carry the momentum that Todd Maynard built over the last four years. Maynard left for the the Huntington St. Joe job this past summer which is closer to his home and new teaching job.
Stacy was out of coaching in 2020 and was planning on staying away from it and watching his grandkids play ball after coaching at Burch Middle school in Mingo Co. from 2015-2019. He also spent 11 years as the coach of Crum middle and 2 years each assisting Ric Morrone and Loren Perry at Tolsia in the 1990’s.
Tolsia went 10-5 last season and started 4 seniors and a junior who transferred so the Rebels will have five new starters this upcoming winter.
Seniors Steven Ward and Anthony Lovins played some varsity the past two years and promising freshman Parker Watts will be key contributors for the Rebels.
New Tolsia Boys Basketball Head Coach Brian Stacy
COACH’S COMMENTS
“… Excited is an understatement for sure, I bleed blue and orange, always have and always will. This is the job that I have always wanted and I was passed over a few times before but I’m here now and ready to get to work with these kids.”
“… Defense will be our calling card for sure, we are going to pressure you from the time you step on the floor until you leave the floor. I’m a defensive oriented coach and I believe our offense feeds off our defense and my last year at Burch that’s how we played. We played run and jump, we played man to man. Not too many teams that you can coach and you can honestly say that you played man to man defense the whole season.”
“… In the parent/player meeting I referred to the 1991 state championship team when Tommy John Messer picked up the kid from the other end of the court and guarded him from the tip to the buzzer. That’s where we want to be. We want to be able to compete every play on defense. Your offense will feed off of defense but we gotta be able compete. I told the kids in the meeting, we’re gonna compete every time out and you get beat you will have four teammates behind you that better have your back. That’s what we’re going to do, we are going get after people.”
“… Tolsia AD Wade Cyrus mentioned to me in the interview that he remembers Tolsia being tenacious on defense. Well, that’s what we want to get back to. We want to be tenacious and when people leave out of here, we want them to know they played Tolsia and we gave them everything that we had.”
“… I played under Wallace Dillon and lot of people know him and he was a defensive specialist. Me and Ric Morrone actually made the call to get us to the state championship game in 1995 with a defensive adjustment. So yeah, we take that defense mentality back from all the way back there. Mostly I take it back a little bit further, mid eighties, early eighties, I played middle school, probably 80, 81, 82, Something like that and when you played for Wallace you played defense or you didn’t play. Then I played for Randy Anderson and he brought that college mentality to us. The numbering system was totally different. That’s the only way we could get there was playing defense. Huntington East was averaging 80 points a game and we held them to 50 and that was unheard of. That had some talented players and were coached by Jimmy Clayton who was an offensive genius.”
“… We’re going to play defense and we’re going to push the ball up the court and we are going to play hard for 32 minutes.”
“… I mean this is the only job that I would have come out of retirement for.”
“… Well, I’ve waited a week but it’s finally official I’ve been hired as the new head boys basketball coach at Tolsia High School. To say I’m excited is an understatement. When I resigned from Burch Middle School I thought I was done. Thought I was going kick back on the bleachers and watch my grand baby play. But this is the job I’ve longed for since I got into coaching back in the early 90’s as assistant coach at Tolsia for Loren Perry and Ric Morrone. As A Tolsia alumni I can promise you I’ll will work to keep Tolsia on top. Can’t wait to hit the ground running with this year’s team and get out working with the middle schools and try get our youth leagues going back strong. I’m going home — here I come Tolsia High School. Love you guys!!!
Who is going to be your assistant? What about Tommy John Messer?
Wonder why TJ Messer gave up teaching? He was there one day then gone the next.