Amare Bethel has been a program-builder for Charlotte Country Day boys’ basketball
When Amare Bethel enrolled at Charlotte Country Day School to play on the Buccaneers’ boys’ basketball team, the school hadn’t had a 20-win season since 2008. It not had a winning record in Charlotte Independent School Athletic Association games since 2011.
Now a senior who is committed to play at NCAA Division II Metro State of Denver, Bethel has accomplished one of those milestones and seeks the other as official preparation for the 2023-24 season gets underway.
“His development as a player and a team leader is one of my proudest moments as a coach,” Charlotte Country Day coach David Carrier said of Bethel.
The Buccaneers are coming off a 20-13 season in which they finished 4-6 in the challenging CISAA conference before losing in the second round of the state playoffs to eventual N.C. Independent Schools Athletic Association Class 4A state champion Christ School, from Arden, NC.
“Our goal is to keep on building this season and keep on building the right way,” said Bethel, a 6-foot-3, 164-pound guard. “I think we’re a really ‘slept on team’ and we’re going to shock a lot of people. We play very hard and everybody’s starting to learn their roles and everybody’s taking on big steps and improving.”
Carrier says Bethel’s leadership is best shown by how hard he worked to build the program when he didn’t have to.
In every offseason, the NCISAA has dead periods when coaches aren’t allowed to conduct even voluntary workouts with their players.
The past summer, Bethel approached Carrier with his idea on how he wanted to work with his teammates - even if Carrier couldn’t.
“You’d think the kids would welcome that kind of a break,” said Carrier, who has 471 head coaching victories and won two NCISAA state titles at Providence Day School in 1998 and 1999. “But Amare said, ‘Well coach, if you can just have somebody sit in the gym, I’d like to lead dead period workouts.’
“And he gets the guys in there and their joy for the game shows and they use the drills that we use in practice. As a coach, we always say a player-led team will do better than a coach-led team every time.”
When Bethel first came to Charlotte Country Day, Carrier was the Buccaneers’ first-year coach who was navigating a rebuilding team through the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, the 1-17 overall record in that 2020-21 season that included 0-8 in CISAA play didn’t discourage Bethel from working to improve as the Buccaneers’ 16-15 and 20-13 records the next two seasons have shown.
“I do think about that a lot, especially since it’s my last year,” said Bethel, who averaged 15 points per game last season. “I think about the tough times and the good times - and I’m going to miss it all - but I want to go out this season giving it my all.”
Next season, Bethel will be playing for a former local college coach and is expected to play alongside a former CISAA rival.
And while Metro State head coach Dan Ficke didn’t reach out to Bethel during his three-year tenure as Belmont Abbey coach from 2019-22 when the Crusaders went 61-25 with two Conference Carolinas titles, he was interested enough in Bethel this past summer to get a commitment from him.
“What blew me away with him was how he talked to me about being more than a basketball player,” said Bethel, who will have former Providence Day School standout Quave Propst-Allison and some former Belmont Abbey standouts among his Roadrunners’ teammates next season. “I’m looking forward to the opportunity to play there.”
