Weddington High boys’ basketball coach Gary Ellington, a two-time state champion, steps down
Three years ago, Weddington High boys’ basketball coach Gary Ellington stepped down to take a college job at Queen’s University.
He worked in college for a year and came back to high school. Thursday, Ellington told The Observer he was again stepping aside as the Warriors’ head basketball coach, but this time for a different reason.
“I’d kind of been thinking about it for awhile,” said Ellington, 48, “and I decided now was the time to do it. My youngest son is a sophomore (at Weddington) and kids aren’t at home for long. He plays baseball, and I said, ‘I’m going to spend the next two years pouring into him and my wife.’ I mean, I’m only 48. Two years out and I may get back into it.”
Ellington has worked at Weddington for 19 of the past 20 years. He’s been head coach at the Union County high school for 15 years, producing more than 300 wins, nine conference championships and four NCHSAA regional appearances.
His 2020-21 team finished unbeaten and won the NCHSAA 3A state championship. Weddington moved up to 4A for the 2021-22 season and went unbeaten again, ultimately winning 49 straight games and another state championship.
After the 2021-22 season, Ellington was named The Charlotte Observer’s regional coach of the year as well as state coach of the year.
Ellington said he’ll remain at Weddington as a teacher and will help out with the Warriors’ athletic teams. And he said his second run as coach these past two years — when his teams were 27-2 and 23-6 — taught him some very valuable lessons.
“The state championships those two years were really special,” Ellington said, “but since we’ve come back, these last two years, it’s really made me more remember the impact that we were able to have on so many kids.”
Ellington said he made a list of all the kids he’d coached at Weddington recently and remarked at how amazed he is to get text messages and calls from many of them, some who played for him 10 years ago or more.
“These kids need somebody to hold them accountable,” Ellington said, “and as much as they think they don’t want it, they do. Those are the things I’ll take with me forever.”
Last month, one of the school’s best-ever players, Chase Lowe, sent Ellington a text. Lowe is a junior at William & Mary.
Ellington said Lowe’s words touched him deeply.
“He said, ‘Coach, I want to thank you for teaching me about commitment, discipline and holding me accountable,’” Ellington recalled. “He said, ‘So many guys I play with or against in college don’t have any of that.’ Man, those are the things I’ll remember. It’s like, all right, it was all worth it.”
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 6:26 PM.
