From a 6-15 start to his coaching career at Varina, to 51-4 mark over the past two seasons with a State Championship, Andrew Lacey certainly turned the Blue Devils around and into one of the premier programs in all of Virginia. With that mission accomplished, he was ready to embark on a new task.
Lacey was announced officially as the new Head Men's Basketball Coach at Richard Bland College of William & Mary in South Prince George, VA on Monday.
"Richard Bland College is excited to welcome Coach Lacey to Richard Bland College," stated Scott Newton, acting Athletics Director at Richard Bland, in a press release on Monday. "His track record of winning consistently on the court combined with his ability to develop leaders, and helping them fulfill their potential academically and athletically were very appealing to the college when conducting our national search."
In six seasons at Varina, the Lacey guided the Blue Devils to a record of 109-46 overall. That was highlighted by three straight State Tournament appearances, the program's first ever state title in 2018, and a 38-game winning streak they took all the way into the end of January this past season.
"It was a tough decision. Any time that you're dealing with High School kids and something where you poured everything you had for six years, there's an attachment to a program. Also, it's about understanding that we teach our kids all the time to evaluate their dreams and your goals, so when an opportunity presents itself, you need to make sure that you do because those opportunities don't always come. When it applies to myself, I really had to think long and hard about it, and realize that I left it better than I found it," Lacey told VirginiaPreps.com.
"As a coach, you have a vision that at some point in time, I want my program to be competing for Championships of some sort. For me, that was always the vision and goal. It then became a matter of embracing the process. Our guys really embraced that process daily in order for us to have an opportunity at the end. We dropped the ball in some areas early, but we were able to keep it afloat and then our kids took it from there."
Lacey's roots are here in Virginia, where he won a State Football Championship at Washington & Lee High School in 1998 and also starred in basketball there, setting the record for games played in at 101. In college, he played at Bridgewater.
As the junior varsity coach at W&L, Lacey went 16-4 in 2006. From there, he became the inaugural coach of the Skyline girls basketball program in 2007. By 2009, their 13-13 record marked the best for a program in Warren County in 28 years. That was followed by stops with the North Stafford girls varsity program and the Pincecrest boys job in North Carolina before returning to his home state and landing at Varina.
"Being a former college player at Bridgewater, you get attached to the game. At that point in time when I got out of college, I didn't know if I wanted to be a coach. You really want to play as long as you can. Once I got to the High School level, I always had a goal that one day, if the right opportunity presented itself, that I would explore getting a college coaching opportunity. Richard Bland is a unique situation. A lot of it is based on who you know and who knows you. Very easily, you can wind up coaching out-of-state somewhere in college, and having a 10-year-old son in Richmond, that wouldn't be the most beneficial for me," Lacey explained.
"When Richard Bland came open, it provided an opportunity in the city of Richmond similar to Varina to re-build a program,, but you're still doing a lot of the same in preparing kids and athletes to go on to the next level after two years. It aligns with some of the same process and mold that I've been doing. There are some things that make it more interesting. Now you can go out and identify kids who fit your system and style of play, versus getting just the kids in your zone. I'm very excited for this new challenge as we try to get the program back to its Championship days and keep progressing forward."
Richard Bland restarted its basketball program in 2013 and captured the National Junior College Athletic Association Division II National Championship the very next season under Chuck Moore, a Virginia native and Kecoughtan High School grad. Moore went 126-42 in five seasons before stepping down at the end of the 2017-18 campaign.
At Richard Bland, Lacey takes over for Preston Beverly, who went just 6-21 in his lone season at the helm. Re-establishing the Statesmen as one of the top junior college destinations in the country will be among the main objectives for Lacey, which he says begins with keeping the homegrown talent from leaving the Commonwealth.
"It's our job to make sure people know that Richard Bland exists. On the recruiting front, probably the number one thing for me is to keep the kids in-state. We want to make sure that they know there's a Division I JUCO here in Virginia that does provide housing, so you don't have to go out west. Some of the facilities are as nice as you'll find at a Division III college. But I think the things that were done along, the talent level that we coached at Varina and what we had to do to get Varina to where it was will help in this process."
During the summer, Lacey remains busy on the travel circuit, coaching Team Richmond-Garner Road. Previously, he has coached the 15-under and 16-under squads, while this summer he will be coaching the 17-under Choice team
As Lacey moves on to the next level, the run he had at Varina will always hold a special spot in his heart as they left a legacy among the most accomplished programs lately in the Richmond area.
"I can't say enough about how great those years at Varina were for our school and community. What we were able to accomplish in such a short time there speaks about the administration, support of the community and ultimately the kids," Lacey reflected. "Their dedication to the vision that we had made it possible for us to be a State Championship program. Those are some of the greatest memories I'll ever have as a coach."
Matthew Hatfield serves as Publisher for VirginiaPreps.com, part of the Rivals.com Network, and is a regular contributor to the ACC Sports Journal. Check out Hatfield’s Twitter page for more sports related updates, and you can also read his work in the Suffolk News Herald. To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and don’t forget to listen to him weeknights from 6-7 PM on The 757 at 6 as well as every Saturday at 10 AM to Noon on ESPN Radio 94.1.
