After winning a record 3 straight NC 4A state titles, Chambers High hires new coach
Chambers High School has hired a new girls basketball coach with deep roots in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
Amber Neely will coach the Cougars, who won a record third straight N.C. 4A state championship last season. Neely replaces Donnell Rhyne, who resigned after the season. Rhyne is now the head coach at Northside Christian.
Neely, 27, is a 2012 graduate of Mallard Creek High School, where she played for Ericia Turner, now system athletic director for CMS, as well as longtime Mallard Creek coach Clarence Johnson.
Neely will coach in what closely resembles the league she played in as a high school player.
“I’m very, very excited,” she said. “It’s going to feel good, going back to my old conference and taking what I learned from (Johnson) and (longtime Mallard Creek assistant Kerry Sargent) and Ms. Turner, and everything I learned at Rocky River. I’m really excited for the opportunity and just blessed.”
After high school, Neely played at N.C. Central and later transferred to Wingate, where she earned an undergraduate degree in human services and a master’s degree in sports management.
After graduation, she’s been a head coach for three years at Rocky River High School as well as at East Gaston and an assistant coach at Charlotte Latin. She’s been out of coaching recently, working as an insurance agent, selling cancer and accident policies. That was something she was drawn to after losing her mother to cancer five years ago, and Neely said she plans to continue working in that field on the weekends. She’ll be a full-time teacher in Chambers’ career and technical education department this fall.
And Neely said she hopes to simply continue to build the Chambers program, not remake it. She’ll get to meet her team for the first time next Tuesday. Chambers could potentially return the bulk of last year’s state championship team — plus move up an unbeaten junior varsity — and be a favorite to four-peat.
“Hopefully,” she said, “we’ll have a family atmosphere, and having the girls come in and trust me. I’m not focused on Xs and Os. That’s the easier part. When I first started coaching, I was like, ‘Yeah, I want to win,’ but I realized that just because I know about basketball doesn’t mean everyone learns the same way. You have to learn your team. That’s my goal.”
Neely said there will be pressure to win right away at Chambers, and she welcomes that.
“Yeah, there’s definitely some pressure,” she said, “and some big shoes to fill. I was a little nervous at first but I knew that God would not give me anything I’m not ready for. He’s prepared me for this moment. I’ve been faced with many challenges with basketball and with life and I keep my faith in God. He has my back at the end of the day.”
