Basketball in a refurbished church? Program tips off at new high school in Huntersville
A new Charlotte-area high school basketball program has been born.
Ambassador Christian School, which opened this year in Huntersville, blew out Queen’s Grant 62-46 on Thursday night. It marked the first boys’ basketball game in program history.
Nicknamed the Lions with purple as their main color, the new team is led by Scott Taylor, the recent state champion head coach at Myers Park.
The school sits inside a building that formerly housed a church. There’s a 3,000-seat auditorium in the center of it, and Ambassador Christian removed roughly a third of the seating to build classrooms. That includes laboratories and space for subjects such as biology and chemistry — even a class on how to build a car.
“It’s new for me, my family, my friends showing up,” Taylor said. “Our community is a new community. I thought that there would be some interest and some excitement. I don’t know that I would have expected that.
“It was really cool, just to have the attention and interest from the area to see what it looked like. Hopefully we did enough that they come back.”
Spectators packed the bleachers and standing areas inside the school’s brand-new maple hardwood gymnasium Thursday evening. There was plenty of purple to be seen, along with the school’s newly designed logo.
Ambassador Christian (1-0) started the game on a 14-3 run, including a dunk from junior forward Tyler Brown. While the Lions have only been practicing for roughly a month, they were in control of the game for most of the night.
Senior guard JD Bowden, among several transfers from United Faith Christian, was Ambassador Christian’s leading scorer with 16 points. Junior guard Logan Johnson finished with 14 points, and senior forward Dylan Deluca recorded a 10-point performance.
Notable
▪ In the girls game played before the boys game, Queen’s Grant came from behind in a 53-47 victory.
▪ Taylor, the new head coach at Ambassador Christian, was at the helm of Myers Park for the past eight seasons. He led the Mustangs to the 2023 NCHSAA 4A title in their first state championship game appearance in more than 50 years.
Up next?
Queen’s Grant is set for its first home game at 4:30 p.m. Saturday against Gaston Christian.
Ambassador Christian returns to its new gymnasium for a matinee this weekend, hosting Grace Christian at 3 p.m. Saturday. It welcomes JSerra Catholic, a top team out of San Juan Capistrano, California, to its building on Nov. 18.
This story was originally published November 7, 2024 at 10:15 PM.
