How running too fast in old Cole Haans turned prep basketball coach into viral sensation
Thanks to running a little too fast, and an old pair of dress shoes, a local high school basketball coach has become a viral sensation on social media.
Video of 27-year-old Erik Whaley has been passed around on Instagram and Twitter, and Whaley said some major media companies like Overtime have asked about releasing the clip of him taking a spill-and-slide during a recent game at United Faith Christian Academy in southeast Charlotte.
Whaley initially released the video himself on Instagram to promote a podcast called Shotmakers Club that he does weekly with some friends to talk about sports, and particularly basketball. Once the video came out, it just kept getting shared and re-posted.
“I’m a guy who likes to joke and laugh with people,” said Whaley, an assistant coach at Westminster Catawba Christian School in Rock Hill, S.C, “so my thing is if you can dish it out, you should be able to take it. It’s funny and all of the kids saw it. One of my friends recorded the video. It was right place, right time.”
Turns out that Westminster head coach Ed Addie had left his clipboard in the locker room at halftime. During a timeout in the second half, Addie asked Whaley to go get it, and Whaley took off.
And maybe he took off a little too fast.
“Me being a good assistant coach, I was trying to hustle and get the clipboard,” said Whaley, who also coaches the 16U Team Loaded NC travel team on the Adidas circuit. “I ran across the court and I didn’t think I was going as fast as I was....and I kind of went sliding leg first, like I was sliding into first base.”
A gym full of fans saw the spill, but what they didn’t see was this: after Whaley quickly got up and turn right down a hall, he nearly fell again. Those old shoes nearly got him again.
“I had on some Cole Haans,” he said. “I graduated college in those shoes. It may be time to go ahead and give them up, but those are the first pair of real dress shoes I bought with my own money, so they have sentimental value to me.”
Westminster Catawba is No. 14 in the Charlotte Observer’s Sweet 16 high school basketball poll. Before Whaley and Westminster head coach Ed Addie took over the program, the school had not posted a winning season in more than 16 years.
Westminster Catawba (15-2) was scheduled to play at Arborbrook Christian Tuesday night.
Whaley said he got a big standing ovation when he came back with the clipboard after he fell, and he said he has thoroughly enjoyed all the attention that has come with it.
“Everybody’s been a good sport about it,” he said. “And I love a good laugh like everybody else. I’m happy (this one) could be at my expense.”
This story was originally published January 14, 2020 at 2:35 PM.
