Adams enters 4th season as Davie coach with high hopes

From recreational ball to travel ball to her days playing middle school and high school in Burke County, which she capped by being a key member of the county’s first and only undefeated state title squad, Lindsey Adams was a winner every step of her journey in the sport of basketball.

For the last three-plus years now, her mission has been to translate that success over to her players.

The daughter of David and Tammy Adams of Morganton, Adams started the sport at age 6, playing in the Burke County Recreation Department youth league with Forest Hill under coach Jeri Rooks, who also coached her on the Burke Jammers travel team.

“She was the only coach I had the first five years playing,” Adams said. “On those Forest Hill teams, we had Madison Ervin, Ansley Rooks, who won one (state title) at Hickory. So there was talented people.” 

At Liberty Middle, Adams’ seventh-grade squad was Foothills Athletic Conference tournament champions. The next year, the FAC didn’t hold a postseason tournament, but Liberty finished a perfect 13-0.

She then attended Patton for two years, helping the Lady Panthers to a school-record win total, first-ever state playoff win, and first-ever (and still only) win over rival Freedom.

She then transferred to Freedom for her final two prep seasons, during which time the Lady Patriots reached the NCHSAA 3A West Regional semifinal her junior year and followed with a storybook ending, a 32-0 state title season her senior year.

“That’s ultimately what I want all of my players to understand and get to experience,” Adams said. “When I was in high school, the players I was surrounded by, we knew we were going to accomplish that. We expected to win, there was no ‘what if we don’t do this or that.’ I’m trying to have my players now have that type of mindset. It changes things when you carry that much confidence.

“Having gone through that (kind of success) and having had that much talent on teams I played for, it’s hard to try to get that out of my team. We try to set realistic goals, win conference, win a Christmas tournament, and build toward trying to win a state championship.” 

Adams ended her prep career by averaging 14.1 points per game or more in three of four seasons, being named all-county all four years (including first team three times), and was named FHS’ state title game most valuable performer.

“My trainer was Tim Lewis,” a former Montreat College and Walter Johnson Middle head coach who ran the Crossover Camp at New Day Christian Church for years, Adams said.

“I worked with him all through high school twice a week. He taught me some moves and gave me a better perspective on how to use those moves and read (defenders).” 

After her FHS days, Adams played one season at Coker University, averaging 7.3 points in 26 games (including five starts) as a freshman before deciding on her career path.

Adams knew from the time she was in middle school that she wanted to teach, though she initially thought that would come at the elementary-school level. She had also served as an instructor at FHS’ annual youth basketball camp, something that planted the coaching seed in the back of her head.

“I really liked it and thought I could be a coach potentially,” she said. 

She revisited that thought after one semester at Coker, switching majors to health and P.E. and coming to the conclusion, “why not be a P.E. teacher so that I can get to a high school and hopefully be a coach?”

Early start as head coach

Adams transferred to Appalachian State University, where she spent her last three years of college. During her final year in Boone, Adams did her student teaching at Hickory High School, where she also served as an assistant varsity girls hoops coach under Barbara Helms, a former East Burke coach.

Almost immediately after earning her undergraduate degree from ASU in 2020, Adams at the age of 22 was named head girls basketball coach at Davie County High School in Mocksville, where she’s also a health and P.E. teacher.

What she inherited was a 4A program that was not accustomed to winning. 

The Lady War Eagles had finished with an 0-25 record the year before and were a combined 15-82 spanning the four seasons prior to Adams taking over.

Adams, now 25, said the difference between the Davie program and the Freedom program under long-time coach Amber Reddick that she played for during her final two prep seasons was striking.

“I knew they were bad, but I had been used to success from elementary-school ball on up through high school, so my interpretation of a team being bad was nowhere near what I felt like I was thrown into,” Adams said. 

“So I got here, and unlike Freedom where there’s state championship pictures all over the gym, the gym is empty. Wrestling is big here, but they hadn’t won (state) since the early 2000s. There’s four banners in the gym, three from wrestling, and the other one is from cheerleading.”

Adams’ initial job description centered around just getting girls out to play.

“What was hard for me, whether it was administration, athletic directors, they just wanted the girls to have fun,” Adams said. “Yes, build a culture up, but let them have fun. Because the program was at a point where the girls didn’t want to play. They didn’t have a JV team, we had nine freshmen on varsity because everybody else had quit. Nobody even wanted to come out for basketball.”

For Adams, though, having fun is winning games. 

“That was different for me because I’m not out here to just have fun. I want to win,” she said. “It’s kind of been challenging the first three years. To build things the right way, obviously you have to have dedication, you have to have discipline, you have to work year-round not just when the season comes, and you have to have girls that buy into that. 

“I think I’ve had two or three girls quit each year or one have to get kicked off because you have to build a culture when really there was none. I’m just trying to set those expectations.” 

Raising the expectation level

Davie has taken a step up in win total each season under Adams. 

In her first season, the condensed 2021 COVID season, Davie went 3-9 and improved from the year before to the extent that Adams was named Central Piedmont 4A Conference coach of the year.

The Lady War Eagles went 9-14 in year two and were 13-13 last season, reaching the state playoffs for the first time in eight years. In the first round, they faced a Northern Guilford squad with whom Adams has some history. In Adams’ senior year, Freedom beat Northern Guilford at UNC’s Carmichael Arena to win state and cap the 2015-16 season.

“That was a whole full-circle moment,” Adams noted.

Aside from Rooks and Lewis, Adams said she learned a lot about the game from Reddick and Helms as well.

“Coach (Reddick) obviously had a lot of knowledge,” Adams said. “When I went to Hickory, I got a different perspective because Helms is different than (Reddick). Even though they’re both successful. … (I) kind of put both of their coaching styles together to pave my way into who I want to be as a coach.” 

Adams said she wants the Davie program to hang its hat on defense. At first, that was out of necessity; there was very little offensive firepower to be found.

“As a player, I feel like I was a little lazy on defense. I wanted to score,” Adams said. “Coming here, I didn’t have scorers. So I realized quickly, if we’re going to win, the first thing we have to do is get stops. We’ve got to play defense. 

“I had athletes, not necessarily basketball players yet, so how can you win with athletes? So we try to take charges, hustle, full-court press. We couldn’t run a (successful) halfcourt offense, so we just had to run and gun. So defense, toughness, rebounding, if you can’t do those things, you won’t play. That’s what I tried to set the foundation on. And now coming into this year, we’ve grown on that.”

Last year’s Davie squad had one player (rising senior Malayka Rankin) who led the state in drawn charges (30) and ranked sixth nationally according to MaxPreps, Adams said. The team was No. 1 in the state for charges taken.

“That’s been big for us because I’ve never had a post presence here,” Adams said. “If we are going to beat bigger teams, we have to protect the paint. Size-wise we couldn’t, but we can get in position and take a charge.” 

Adams said one of the things her team utilizes is a diamond press she got to know both at Freedom and Hickory.

“I changed a few of those principles,” she said. “It’s the same press, but teaching the girls how to trap and when to know to trap is different. And then I also took Barb’s halfcourt press, which has been beneficial to me here because it limits what teams can run as far as their offensive sets. It just sped them up and helped change things up for the type of players we have here.” 

This year, the Lady War Eagles return four of their five leading scorers, all of those now seniors who will have played for Adams their whole prep careers.

“We should have the most offensively skilled team that I’ve ever been able to coach here,” she said. “So putting that offensive threat with hopefully the kind of defense we have established by now that we’re going to play, I hope we can make a pretty good run at a conference title and in the state playoffs.” 

Adams said a couple of youngsters in her program have a chance to be special.

“We have 12 freshmen that came in this summer. Four of them will probably play varsity, and one will probably start,” she said. “In a perfect world, we win conference the next two years. I have an eighth grader right now, and with this incoming freshman, if they continue working, they could be D-I players. They have the size and they have the skill level to do it.” 

Paul Schenkel can be reached at 828-445-8595 (ext. 2002) or paul@thepaper.media.