Duty called and once again, E.B. Price answered. Price, who had been a familiar face in Ware County basketball circles for years, was happily enjoying the fruits of his labors when school started in August. But when Chris Webber resigned as the boys coach at Pierce County High just weeks into the school year to accept a position in Florida, Price’s name wound up at the top of a very short list of replacements. Consequently, it didn’t take PCHS athletic director Sean Pender long to issue an invitation to the veteran hoops coach.
“I had worked with Sean at Ware County and Brantley County,” says Price, who initially retired in 2006 following a 35-year career. “Sean is a student’s coach, and an excellent motivator who has the perspective of all sports in hand. He asked me several times to do the job. Finally I said, ‘Yes, we’ll see what we can work out.’”
Changes in education during his teaching hiatus created concerns, but Price says PCHS principal Dara Bennett created a smooth transition. The job’s academic duties included supervising the In-School Suspension (ISS) program. “I had taught PE, science, health, diver’s education and math,” says Price. “But ISS – I’d never done that before. ISS is a treat every day because you never know what is going to happen.”
Price found his basketball legs quickly as the Bears got out of the starting blocks with three straight wins before dropping three in a row. However, PCHS rebounded with a home victory over West Nassau, Florida just before Christmas break, giving the team a 4-3 mark in the first seven games. “Versus West Nassau we had five guys in double figures scoring and that’s the first time that has happened,” said Price. “We really emphasize the three Ds: desire, determination, and discipline, not only in basketball, but in school and in life.”
That philosophy has been the hallmark of Price’s success, stemming from his days as a prep athlete at Johnson County High School in Wrightsville. A defensive standout, Price earned All-Middle Georgia (FirstTeam) honors on the gridiron and also competed in track. He subsequently attended Georgia Southern College, earning a degree in health and physical education in 1971. His first teaching and coaching gig came later that year in Houston County at Northside Junior High, coaching football, girls basketball and track.
Waycross High School hired Price in 1975, an opportunity that included his first head varsity job as girls basketball coach, along with assistant football duties. It turned out to be a defining career moment. “When I got into the business, I had an ambition of being a head football coach,” Price says. “But when I got to Waycross, I didn’t want to leave. Coach Dale Williams (head football coach and AD) hired me at as the secondary coach. During that time I learned I was going to be a girls varsity basketball coach, and they had won state the year earlier. I knew I would need some training, so I called Coach Norman Carter (Taylor County) and said I would stay a day or two up there. I wound up coming back about five weeks later.”
Price continued s
hadowing some of the most respected names in basketball and his team remained a dominant force. The WHS girls marched to a state runner-up finish in 1976 before winning the state AA title in 1978. From 1976-1982, the Lady Dogs also won five region titles while rolling up a 148-17 record. “If I had to give credit to anybody for my basketball knowledge, it would be Coach Carter, J.B. Bearden (Franklin County), George Eaves (Stockbridge), and Jane Williamson (Haralson County),” says Price. “I learned my basketball from old-school, fundamental coaches. I believe you have to learn fundamentals to play the game.”
Over the next 24 seasons, Price’s teams racked up another 450 wins, starting with a two-year stint in Brantley County, where he coached both the Herons and Lady Herons from 1982-84. He returned to Waycross High in 1985 as head boys coach and guided that year’s Bulldogs to 29 straight wins before falling to Central Carrollton in the state finals. WHS lost just a half a dozen games over the next five years as Price’s squads hung five region titles in the ensuing years.
Price maintained a standard of excellence into the 1990s, when he oversaw the merger of Ware County and Waycross boys basketball. Price made the Final Four in 1999 with a Gators team that included Tre Hill, the current Ware boys coach. Hill is among three of Price’s protégées to become head coaches (along with Lisa Pollar and Keith Davis). “That team in ’99 was probably the last group that really loved the game, played the game, hung out together, and socialized together,” Price says. “It was just such a good group to be around.”
In 2006, Price retired as a high school teacher, but he remained active as a health and physical education instructor at Waycross College (now South Georgia State College) from 2008-2011. He also continued work in the driver’s education field. Price and three other retired educators wrote a grant through the driver’s education at Brantley County High and continued that instruction for another two years. When the grant expired, Price and former BCHS principal Randy Yonz opened the Waycross-based Driver Academy, which they still maintain.
“We are a certified DDS company that teaches students how to drive correctly and comply with Joshua’s Law so they can get their license,” says Price. “Some afternoons I drive and then come to basketball practice. Classes last about a week in the classroom and driving is spread out over maybe a month, broken into two- hour sessions. We try to instill some good fundamentals into what the kids need to know.”
Recent years have seen Price quench his competitive thirst by playing several rounds of golf per week. He still works as an event coordinator at the Lakes of Laura Walker and carries a 10 handicap. He also enjoys dove and duck hunting and shares his affinity for fishing and traveling with his three daughters – Shelley Price Paul, Brittini Price (a senior at Ware County High School), and Elexis (a sophomore at WCHS), as well as his grandchildren: granddaughter Savannah Paul, 19, and six-year-old twin grandsons Mason and Miles Paul.
Price occasionally toyed with the idea of a return to the hardwood in applying for area jobs, but each time he ultimately nixed the idea of resuming 110-hour weeks. Then the Pierce situation presented the optimum situation and Price also brought assistants Jerome Lincoln and Alvin Thrift aboard. Together, they manage a roster of 12 players, with eight or nine of those manning the floor on any given night. Price says the early success demonstrates players buying into the concept of ball sharing and team play and he is grateful to Pender and PCHS principal Dara Bennett for the opportunity to coach again. Price stops short of calling it an interim gig.
“I have a passion for coaching,” Price says. “I like working with kids and seeing them grow. It’s not the wins and losses and championships, it’s 10-15 years later when kids come back and say ‘Thanks for all you’ve done.’ All that matters is that phone call or seeing a former player who simply says, ‘Thank you for making me the person I am today.’”
Price Points
• Master’s in physical education, Georgia College
• Assistant coach for state football champion Waycross Bulldogs (1977, 1981)
• Umpired high school baseball and softball, 1972-1998
• Inducted into Ware County Sports Hall of Fame, 2001
Southeast/Coach’s Corner/January, 2014
E.B. Price
Pierce County High School
Blackshear, Georgia
Story by John DuPont
Photos by Jennifer Carter Johnson
Back in the Saddle Again
