Bobby Williams didn’t get the call to coach boys basketball at Carlynton until a little late in the process, but he and the Cougars have been working to make up for lost time.
And at this point, the veteran coach likes what he’s seeing.
Williams, a longtime Division I assistant who has made several stops at the high school level, assumed the Carlynton reins in June.
He had served most recently as an assistant to Mt. Lebanon coach Joe David, but when the opportunity came up at Carlynton, he went after it.
“I did enjoy my time with coach David and we had a lot of success,” Williams said. “But he and I talked – I’m getting up there in age, and I wanted an opportunity to be a head coach again.
“I prefer to be a head coach.”
Williams said he spent time in the summer developing skills and working on conditioning with the players who expressed an interest in playing for him.
“These guys have bought in,” he said. “Our hope is that we have more guys come out when they see how we play and how the culture has changed.
“That was my biggest concern coming in – the culture and changing it in a positive way.”
The Cougars will get their first test when Rochester visits Carlynton for a 7:30 p.m. matchup Tuesday.
Williams acknowledged that he’s a “very intense guy,” and that intensity level is manifested in the way his teams play.
“I’m not a motion guy – an east-west guy,” he said. “We like to go north-south. We have guys who are athletic enough to score in transition. We’ll try to get points off the defensive side.”
Williams said he will attack his opponent’s weakness on the floor.
“We’ll get up and run and press,” he said. “We like to trap and get after it.
“We’ll play with a level of physicality not seen around here by a lot of schools.”
With just 13 players on the roster, the Cougars are not a deep team. Williams will count on four of them to get significant playing time in Michael Jenkins, Kendel McClure, Ishaga Barrie and Graydon Harvey.
Jenkins is a 5-foot-11 senior shooting guard, McClure is a 6-foot senior center, Barrie is a 6-1 senior wing and Harvey is a 6-1 senior forward.
Another player who could see time for the Cougars is Maurice Segnonou, a 6-1 sophomore transfer from Seton LaSalle who originally attended Carlynton.
“It’s nice to have him transfer back in,” Williams said of Segnonou.
Overall, Williams said he’s comfortable with the players he has on hand.
“Right now they’re learning my style of play,” he said. “It’s a paradigm shift for them to go from one coaching style to another.”
He’s also comfortable with the fact that the Cougars are more or less flying under the radar when it comes to preseason prognostications.
“No one is predicting us to do anything,” he said. “Our name doesn’t come up when the coaches talk. That’s a beautiful thing.
“We’ll see how we match up with people when the time comes. I guarantee it’ll be physical and we’ll be hard to play against.”
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