Lake Norman Christian has a new coach. And everyone, even Mikey Williams, is staying
Patrick McCarthy, the interim basketball coach at Lake Norman Christian, said he doesn’t want to focus on the past.
McCarthy, 29, will replace Mason Padgett, who resigned abruptly last week, citing personal reasons. McCarthy’s first game was Tuesday at Victory Christian. Victory Christian (15-4) spoiled McCarthy’s debut, winning 76-73.
Before the game, McCarthy said he had spoken with all of the players and parents and everyone planned to stay, including 5-star guard Mikey Williams. Williams is a top-5 player nationally in the class of 2023 who has more than 2.5 million followers on Instagram.
“Right now,” McCarthy said, “everybody is showing up and being engaged and is focused on finishing the season out. We’re excited to move forward and we’ve got a great foundation and we want to move into a positive light.”
McCarthy said he started coaching while he was a student at UNC-Wilmington, working at Coastal Christian, a nearby private school, and with an AAU program in the area. He had some lower level college opportunities coming out of high school, he said, but injuries slowed his playing career.
“I had some D2 and D3 opportunities,” he said, “but I realized I needed to go to school and focus on myself. But I did a year without basketball and it drove me crazy. It made me realize how much the game means to me, and the structure it brought to my life, and I hope to impact everyone with that who comes through my doors.”
After college, McCarthy coached three seasons as an assistant at Winston-Salem Reynolds before he moved to Charlotte for a new job and began coaching in the Pro Skills Basketball (PSB) organization that is now home to Stephen Curry’s Team Curry squads. McCarthy coached a 17U PSB team on the Under Armour Rise circuit last season.
Via his travel basketball roots, McCarthy has coached several Division I players. At Lake Norman Christian, he inherits a team full of them.
Lake Norman Christian is a small, K-12 private school in Huntersville, a short drive down Old Statesville Road from North Mecklenburg High, a large public school that won an N.C. 4A state championship last season.
Annual tuition ranges from $10,680 for kindergarten to $12,280 for high school.
The basketball team has a winning tradition but had previously played against modest competition, often lower-level charter and private schools.
From 2014-18, for example, the Storm went 93-25. Last year, the first for Padgett, Lake Norman Christian was 31-2. One of the losses was a 90-50 defeat to Charlotte Country Day, a team that went 9-20 last season.
Before this season began, Lake Norman Christian added a wealth of talent, including Williams, who moved to Charlotte from San Diego. He was joined by AJ Allenspach, a 6-8 forward who played at Hillcrest High in Simponville, S.C. last season; 6-8 forward Joyful Hawkins, who transferred from Georgia; 6-8 Shane Fernald, who played at Hickory Ridge; 7-footer Jonathan Kurtas, who played at SouthLake Christian; and Trey Green, a 5-9 point guard from Vance High.
Lake Norman Christian (8-3) has played in several nationally televised events and high-level tournaments. McCarthy said the team had some scrimmages last week, but hasn’t played an official game since beating High Point Wesleyan, 92-73, on Dec. 30.
McCarthy said his staff will include T.J. Tolbert, who was on Padgett’s staff, and former Davidson and Western Kentucky player Brian Allenspach. Allenspach’s son, Riley, and nephew, A.J., are on the Lake Norman Christian roster.
McCarthy said he hoped to add 18-21 games onto his team’s schedule. In the next week, Lake Norman Christian will play at United Faith on Friday, at Shining Light in Greensboro on Saturday and at North Hills Christian in Salisbury on Nov. 19.
“I’m so ready to get out there and play some ball,” McCarthy said. “I’ve been dealing with understanding where we’re at as a program and communicating with everybody internally, and we’re ready to go. I think we’re ready to show the world that we’re moving forward and we’re not going to let a little bit of adversity pull us down.
“We’re going to keep this thing rolling.”
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 2:42 PM.
