Wednesday, Apr. 06, 2011

Lady Knights have coach

After spending 15 years as Apex's junior varsity coach, Shelly Holmes is the next Cary Christian girls basketball coach.

Holmes takes over the Lady Knights after the team went through two coaches this past season. Carmen Javaux was fired on the eve of the EPIC conference tournament championship game and assistant John Pettit finished out the season.

Holmes said she's learned a lot about coaching from her mentor, former Apex varsity head coach Scott Campbell.

Campbell coached for 28 years and amassed more than 450 wins before retiring from coaching in late March.

"He taught me how to enjoy it, how to raise young women while they are there and how to raise young women and not just athletes," Holmes said.

Holmes said she was hoping to replace Campbell, but once the Cary Christian job opened, family ties to it more appealing. Three of her six children are already attending Cary Christian.

"It'll be an easy thing to be near my kids when they start playing athletics," Holmes said.

"I had known for one week that coach Campbell was leaving and I had decided that's what I was going to do - I was going to apply for that."

In the past four seasons, Cary Christian has become one of the area's most successful girls basketball programs regardless of classification.

During that time, Cary Christian has gone 104-21 overall and 33-3 in conference play with a NCISAA 2-A championship in 2009.

"They're both wonderful schools, wonderful administrations, great kids," Holmes said.

"It's just really important for me to be near my kids in the next few years."

The Lady Knights will graduate two 1,000 point scorers from this year's team, but return 2,000-point scorer Dakota Dukes, who was the Triangle's leader in rebounds (14.7) and steals (4.9) while scoring 23.1 points per game.

Pettit said he would return to his role as assistant to the varsity boys basketball team at Cary Christian.

"She's a great person, big into the community and been coaching a very long time - so we're pretty excited," Pettit said.