By Robert Griffin

Sports Writer

Inside of a warm gymnasium on an even warmer early summer day, there are the sounds of basketballs slamming against the wood floor, and whistles blowing.

Even though basketball season is still months away, new LaGrange Academy Lady Warriors head coach Drew Dorsey is guiding the six participaing players through routine dribbling drills.

He stands calmly at center court, watching with a close eye as the girls dribble a ball with each hand to where he stands and back to the line.

“Remember,” Dorsey says with a coach’s tone, “the lower you keep the ball, the more control you will have.”

Hailing from Byron, Dorsey inherits a Lady Warriors program that is traditionally among the state’s best.

Dorsey takes over for Rorie Bradley, who left after two seasons as the head coach.

After attending Peach County High School where he played both baseball and basketball, Dorsey traveled to Tifton, where he playedbasketball at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.

After his two-year tenure at the school Dorsey transferred to Shorter College where he continued his basketball career.

After graduation Dorsey joined the LaGrange College Panthers as a graduate assistant with the men’s basketball team, eventually taking over as assistant coach when Warren Haynes was promoted to head coach.

There was something missing though for Dorsey.

He said that he was growing a little restless in his job, and after his third year as assistant coach for the Panthers, he decided he needed a change.

“I was getting a little stagnant in basketball,” Dorsey said. “So I went to work with the Millken Company for about four years.”

In that time though, Dorsey felt that something was pulling him back into the gym, and back into coaching.

“It’s a great company and they treat their people well,” Dorsey said of the company, “but in the end it just wasn’t for me.”

Dorsey said that afer being away from coaching the game he loves for four years he found himself missing the everyday, seemingly mundane things that came with coaching a team, and that was one of the main things that sparked his interest to go back into coaching.

“I just missed the everyday doing stuff with basketball, ” Dorsey said. “I grew up playing basketball and I think I know it better than I do anything else. I missed everything from planning practices, being at practices, to scouting other teams, I just really missed that.”

So Dorsey packed his things and took off to Phenix City, Alabama where at the Glenwood School he helped coach football, and served as an assistant for both varsity boys and girls basketball, as well as being the head coach for both the boys and girls junior varsity squad.

“I was very busy last year,” he said.

Dorsey said that it was the family atmosphere that comes with being a part of the school that made him want to coach the Lady Warriors.

“Coach (Matt) Dalrymple and myself have basically been friends since I stepped foot here in LaGrange,” Dorsey said. “Coming down here and meeting the coaches, parents, staff members and kids. It’s a nice little community, and that’s what really drew me to it.”

Watching Dorsey on the court you can tell that he is a man who loves the job he is doing.

“I have had a ball this summer just getting together our practice plans,” Dorsey said. “Trying to figure out how to successfully use the two hours that we have a day the best that we can so that I can get the most out of those six girls on the court, just being in the gym and being around basketball is just unbelievable.”

Dalrymple, who is also the school’s athletics director, said Dorsey’s value extends beyond what he’ll do as a coach.

Dorsey has also taken over the school’s weight-training program, and he’s serious about that job, Dalrymple said.

LaGrange Academy’s weight room was recently remodeled.

“The main new thing this year that we haven’t done a lot of in the past is weight training, and that’s hurt us,” Dalrymple said. “Having Drew as a certified weight trainer, so we have started working out on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and that is going to be a big help for us this year. Just being able to get that strength will hopefully give us an edge this season.”