Coaching is one of the most challenging occupations in sports. It’s often a thankless job where individuals are required to dedicate an abundance of time, effort, and resources into their team. Being a high school coach represents far more than having basketball knowledge and understanding how to win games. On the boy’s side, coaches are tasked with being a leader while sculpting these athletes into young men. Add in the intricacies and difficulties of the current landscape, and it’s certainly not meant for the weak. The game is simply better with the best involved, and Joe Badgett announcing his return to Queen’s Grant High School brings one of the premier coaches back to North Carolina.
He returns to the high school scene after a brief stint at the collegiate level. It proved to be an eye-opening experience, as Badgett states, “I spent this last year in college basketball [at Hampton]. I learned a lot. I thought I knew how things unfolded, but I learned a lot about the recruiting process and how it works. Really blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of a college staff for a year.”
In order to understand where we’re going, we have to look back at where we’ve been. Everything started for Coach Badgett nearly 20 years ago in 2004, where he began coaching middle school at Queens Grant. After four seasons of earning his stripes, he advanced to their high school program. In his two seasons as head coach (2008-10), he led the newly formed Stallions to a 43-9 record. Shortly thereafter, Badgett opted to join Byron Dinkins and the staff at Northside Christian.
Despite already having success as a head coach, this new opportunity would lead to one of the winningest stretches you’ll ever see at the high school level. Between 2010-2016, the Knights went 164-21 with six consecutive title appearances and three straight championships (2011-14). After accumulating one accomplishment after another, Dinkins and Badgett made the move to Carmel Christian. Still in its adolescent stages as a program, there was much work to do.
Although several key pieces followed the previous head coach (Josh Coley) to his new school, it didn’t take very long for Dinkins and Badgett to turn the Cougars into a legitimate machine. The roster only returned three pieces, yet still managed to go 21-5 before suffering a loss in the championship contest. In year two, they went 24-4, returned to the title, and secured the trophy. These feats might seem like the norm for guys like Dinkins and Badgett, but what they accomplished together is largely unprecedented.
Then, everything changed. Dinkins took a coaching position at Charlotte and handed the Carmel Christian program over to Badgett. Across his five seasons with the Cougars, he amassed a record of 131-18 with two state titles victories and four total appearances. To call Badgett an amazing coach would still be a vast understatement of everything he’s achieved. Between his time as an assistant and head coach, he made 12 state championships in 13 years (with 6 titles) and holds a combined record of 383-58 (174-27 as head coach). Furthermore, Badgett has advanced 76 players to the collegiate level.
When discussing his new endeavor, Badgett’s enthusiasm is clear, “I’m super-excited about the opportunity. We want to help kids. That’s what the program has been doing, and we want to continue that. Several college coaches have told me that developing kids at the high school level is more beneficial than what we can do in college. It’s been my dream to finish where I started. I’ve been on their school board and planning committee for the new facility being built. So, I’ve always wanted to finish my coaching career there. The new building is going to be phenomenal. It’ll be a state-of-the-art facility, which will open in the fall of 2025. The timing worked out to do it now and get the program in place. I’ll be on staff with the athletic department, in addition to coaching the basketball team.”
Although the facility will certainly bring appeal, Coach Badgett’s reputation precedes him at this point. He reflects positively on every opportunity along the way, and views this new situation as one that could exceed expectations. For a guy who clearly cares about these kids beyond the basketball court, he’s optimistic that this program will have additional value through its ability to open doors without requiring financial involvement.
The constantly shifting landscape really doesn’t seem to dampen his expectations when it comes to getting talent, as he explains, “If God’s plan is for the program to be there, then we will have players. We’ve always had players. We had players at Northside. We had players at Carmel. We’ve always had kids who paid tuition. If we are there to help the kids, and kids and families are committed to the bigger picture, then it works out.”
That being said, Badgett is going to maintain his stance on the type of players he pursues, “We do target a specific type of kid: high-character kids who are good students. We look for student-athletes. We’ve never just hunted for basketball players. This helps kids understand how the recruiting process works for college basketball. You must have the academic structure in place to help these kids have success. We want our guys to be well-versed in a lot of different things. We want the kids and families to buy into that. It opens up more options and opportunities for these players to go to the next level, not just Division I schools.”
There’s no denying what he’s done over the last two decades, and none of that was by accident. He utilizes a few noteworthy names (Cade Tyson, Ben Burnham, Jaeden Mustaf) to further elaborate on the type of person, not player, they target, stating, “Cade, Ben, and Jaeden all being in the ACC represent this notion. All great kids. Cade and Ben were drastically under-recruited, but their character and hard work is what allowed them to flourish into what they’ve become. Undervalued, high-character kids who work hard. Seeing things that other people don’t see. Got a chip on their shoulder. Do their school work. We’ve never had a kid academically ineligible. We do a lot of conditioning within our eight-week program. We try to mirror a college regimen as much as we can. That’s what we will continue to do. We are going to work. I’m very excited.”
