Mount Pleasant Magazine Jan/Feb 2018

69 www.MPtownCouncil.com | www.MPMcalendar.com | www.MountPleasantMagazine.com feature to help me host,” my wonderful wife reminded me. Of course she had told me about the party weeks ago, and naturally I had neglected to mark the date on my calendar. The party conflicted with my Wando basketball practice. Since these days I am a husband first, publisher second, and, floating somewhere in the distance on my list of priorities between golf and fishing, is being a basketball player. Thus, my return to hardwood glory turned into a somewhat brief but very interesting conversation with Warzynski – in work clothes. Warzynski stands at about 6’6” and is a basketball lifer. Prior to becoming head coach at Wando, he played college ball at Charleston Southern University and had a brief stint playing in Australia before returning to the States and working as an assistant at Wando. Warzynski lives to share what the game has taught him with his players. “We work very hard to build relationships and teach our kids the right way to play basketball,” he said. “I want our players to know that once you get here to Wando, yes, it’s a school of 4,100 students that can probably feel like a foreign city to incoming freshman, but I’ll treat you as if you’re my own kid.” Warzynski was named head coach after the Warriors’ 2013-14 championship season, when former coach David Eaton decided to move back to his hometown in Georgia and coach at his high school alma mater. The new head coach inherited a young team, and, three years later, he is excited about their chances in the 5A Division this season. “We have 10 seniors this year who I’ve spent the last three years coaching,” he said, pointing out that his Warriors went 13-12 last season. Thus Wando’s basketball identity will be togetherness this season. They will win, and probably lose, together as one. With 10 seniors, there will be no shortage of leadership. One of those leaders is senior and Mount Pleasant – Brickyard Plantation, to be specific – native, Joe Jenrette. Jenrette knows that because Wando is the biggest school in the state, other teams will be gunning for them. “We always get everyone’s best, but this year we will be ready,” said Jenrette, who is prideful of how selfless his team is this year. Despite the shared positive outlook, Warzynski has faced some challenges in leading the state’s biggest school’s basketball program. One of the major hurdles is garnering community and student engagement with his program. Some nights, Wando basketball struggles to fill even a tenth of the 2,600-seat gymnasium. Warzynski believes that “Wando pride” has to be instilled in kids at the middle school age or even younger. “It’s important for the kids in our community to want to grow up and be a Wando Warrior basketball player. This is my goal now that I’m head coach,” Warzynki told me with more than a twinge of conviction in his voice.