Why Mallard Creek basketball coach Michael McNeil is stepping down after five seasons
Mallard Creek High boys’ basketball coach Michael McNeil is going home.
After spending five seasons as the Mavericks’ head coach, and four more at Hopewell before that, McNeil, 49, told The Observer he is leaving to take a job at Jamestown’s Ragsdale High School.
McNeil played three sports at Ragsdale before graduating from there in 1994.
“I’ve kind of been following some old classmates of mine and some of the people I graduated with had been following what I’ve been doing around here,” McNeil said. “And when (Ragsdale’s) coaching search came up, they suggested (that the school) reach out to me. The AD and principal reached out and asked if I’d be able to come back.”
After high school, McNeil played football at Mars Hill College and immediately got into teaching and coaching in Bertie County. McNeil coached future NBA player Kent Bazemore in middle school and also was a volunteer assistant on the Bertie High basketball staff.
After four years, McNeil moved to Charlotte and worked as a middle school coach for 10 years, before he became an assistant on the Chambers High football and basketball teams. From 2016-20, McNeil was head coach at Hopewell. He’s been at Mallard Creek since 2020.
McNeil’s Hopewell teams were 53-62, including 19-9 in the 2017-18 season, when he was named I-MECK conference coach of the year.
McNeil is 47-62 at Mallard Creek, but led the team to a 13-12 record in the 2021-22 season. That was Mallard Creek’s first winning season in five years.
At Ragsdale — between High Point and Greensboro, about a 75-minute drive from uptown Charlotte — McNeil takes over a team that has won five games in two years.
Ragsdale was 1-23 last season but had three straight winning seasons from the 2020-21 season until 2022-23.
“I’m excited,” McNeil said. “It’s every guy’s dream to go back to the school they played for. And it’s the community, too. I tell people all the time that there’s no coach McNeil without my experience at Ragsdale. What that community poured into me got me into teaching and coaching.”
This story was originally published April 4, 2025 at 10:17 AM.
