Howard knocks off Pioneers to extend coach Walter 'Moose' McGary's career

Longtime Howard boys' basketball coach Walter McGary talks with his team before Friday's district tournament quarterfinal against East Ridge. Howard won 55-50.
Longtime Howard boys' basketball coach Walter McGary talks with his team before Friday's district tournament quarterfinal against East Ridge. Howard won 55-50.

A half-hour before his team was to tip off its District 6-AA quarterfinal - an elimination game against host East Ridge - veteran Howard boys' basketball coach Walter "Moose" McGary sat alone at the end of the bench and watched warmups.

Leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees, McGary nodded and said: "I'm more at peace than any time in my career. I'm really OK with whatever happens tonight."

McGary had already made the difficult announcement to his players that this will be his final season coaching them, so a loss Friday night would mean not only the end of the Hustlin' Tigers season, but the end of a storied career as well.

But despite having lost twice to the Pioneers in the regular season, and trailing by as many as 13 points in the first half, the Hustlin' Tigers battled back to win 55-50, assuring themselves and their coach of one more district tournament game as well as at least one game in next week's region tourney.

"The kids weren't ready to turn in their uniforms just yet," said McGary, who has coached in Chattanooga for 34 years, the past 15 with the Hustlin' Tigers after having spent the earlier portion of his career coaching at Alton Park Middle.

"They were determined not to lose and played with a lot of effort in the second half," he continued. "It's been a tough season, so I'm really happy for our seniors to accomplish this. We needed it."

Once the game began, the battler inside McGary overtook his pregame peace as he distorted his face in disapproval at every missed assignment and rose from his chair to throw up his arms in disgust whenever an official's call went against his team.

That's the inner competitiveness that helped McGary win more than 20 games nine times, take Howard to six state tournaments and reach the Class AA semifinals three times. And it helped him extend his career a bit longer Friday.

"To be honest, I know I said before the game that I was ready for whatever happened, but once we tipped off I realized I wasn't ready for it to end yet either," said McGary, a former All-American during his playing days in the mid-1970s at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. "I told the kids we would go for as long as they wanted, and tonight they wanted to keep going."

East Ridge built a 10-point lead by the end of the first quarter and extended that to 13 midway through the second before Howard closed to within five by halftime. A full-court press to open the second half frustrated the Pioneers and helped the Hustlin' Tigers pull even with a 7-0 run. They took their first lead on Rico Weaver's layup just before the end of the quarter and extended it to a seven-point advantage in the first minute of the fourth before the Pioneers rallied to retake the lead at the midway point of the final quarter.

Howard (11-12) then closed the game on a 9-3 run, holding East Ridge to just one field goal in the final four minutes. Junior guard Marquez Williams salted away the upset by making a pair of free throws with six seconds remaining.

"I just took my time, tried to catch my breath and not think about the pressure," said Williams, who finished with 16 points. "We took it pretty hard when Coach told us this would be his last year coaching, but we all just decided to try and make the season last as long as we can for him."

It was also career win No. 699 - middle and high school combined - for McGary, who won 14 Hamilton County Athletic Conference titles before leading Howard to seven region and eight district championships.

"Honestly, I never thought I would stay in coaching this long," McGary said. "But the kids and my relationship with other coaches kept me coming back.

"We were sluggish to start the game, and that's my fault. Our kids feed off the energy when we speed up the tempo with the press, and I should've gone to that a lot sooner than I did. I guess no matter how long you do something you're still always learning and trying to correct your mistakes."

Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.

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