All-Saints Days: Flagler College men's, women's basketball on track for school history

The holidays are over and January days can be chilly in the Ancient City. On one recent Saturday, the gray sky and piercing wind off the ocean made going to the beach or simply walking around the scenic waterfront of St. Augustine’s historic area decidedly uncomfortable.

But the doors to the Flagler College Gym on Granada Street are always open when the Saints are playing at home (admission is free for St. Johns County residents), and the men’s and women’s basketball teams have put on quite the show over the last two years.

Last Saturday’s doubleheader victory over Augusta University in front of about as many people as could be packed into the 1,000-seat gym gave the men’s team a 14-3 overall record and 7-1 in the Peach Belt Conference and improved the women’s team to 10-8 and 4-4. The men grabbed sole possession of first place in the conference and seem well on their way to a second regular-season title in a row, while the women were alone in fourth.

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Flagler returned to the NCAA Division II rankings at No. 23 (the Saints began the season second) and celebrated that on Wednesday with an 85-81 victory at Clayton State to improve to 15-3 overall and 8-1 in the Peach Belt.

The men’s team returned a half-dozen key players from last year’s team that won the Peach Belt regular-season and conference championships and reached the NCAA Division II Final Four – the only First Coast basketball program since the 1970 Jacksonville University Dolphins to make a Final Four at any NCAA level -- and the Saints are 33-6 over the last two seasons.

Flagler also has logged its first three victories over Division I teams in the last two years, beating North Florida and Central Michigan last year and Valparaiso this season.

Add the women’s 17-16 two-year mark, for a combined 50-22, and the programs have produced a .694 winning percentage, on track for the best two-year period in school history.

Last year (18-3 for the men, 7-7 for the women in a season interrupted by COVID-related issues) was the first time since 2008 that they had winning records in the same season. If both finish .500 or better this year, it will be the first time they have had winning records two years in a row, at the same time, since 1998 and 1999 when they combined for a 73-45 mark (.619).

Flagler is a combined 25-12 this season, the record for a men’s and women’s college program on the First Coast, ahead of JU (21-13), Edward Waters (20-19) and North Florida (13-25).

While the Saints have won Peach Belt titles in almost every sport over the last decade, the men’s team didn’t win one until last season and the women’s team is still seeking its first. With basketball the leading revenue-producing sport at a school with the second-smallest enrollment in the conference and one of only two private schools, success by both the men’s and women’s teams at the same time has been a nice bump.

“We’ve had a lot of success stories in a lot of programs,” said Jud Damon, Flagler’s athletic director since 2009, a period of time in which the Saints have won a combination of 34 Peach Belt Conference regular-season and tournaments championships in 10 sports. “It’s been a challenge to make the basketball programs one of them. There is a difference in visibility for the college when you have the basketball programs winning at this level.”

High-character coaches lured South

Both teams are coached by a pair of Georgia boys that Damon convinced to give Flagler and St. Augustine a chance.

Men’s coach Chad Warner was a walk-on for Hugh Durham at the University of Georgia in the late 1980s and became the all-time coaching victories leader at Shorter College in Rome, Ga.

Women’s coach Maurice Smith, a native of Americus, Ga., said he would have been content to spend the rest of his career where he had played and coached, at Georgia College in Milledgeville.

Damon knew the goods on Smith because he had been the athletic director at Georgia College for one year in 2008-09. By that time, Smith had been a graduate assistant coach for the Georgia College men’s team that reached the NCAA Division II Sweet 16 in 2005-06, then became an assistant for the women’s team when it reached the Sweet 16 in 2005-06.

Smith then became the Bobcats’ head women’s coach and won one Peach Belt Conference title and got to the championship game two other seasons in his first four years.

Damon will be the first to admit that Flagler was fortunate to receive Warner’s lengthy resume shortly after Bo Clark retired in 2018 following 31 seasons and a 481-362 record at Flagler.

Warner was a grad assistant at Georgia under Jim Harrick, spent four years in high school coaching and two stints as an assistant at Hampden-Sydney and William & Mary before getting his first head coaching job at Shorter.

Warner won 156 games in eight seasons in Rome, topped by a school-record 34 in 2011-12 and a trip to the NAIA “Fab Four.” He was the national NAIA coach of the year that season, presided over Shorter’s transition to NCAA Division II, then was an assistant at Valparaiso when the Crusaders tied for the Horizon League regular-season title in 2016-17, won 24 games and played in the NIT.

Although Smith and Warner were hired at different times, Damon said they have something in common.

“Both of them have great character and are great people,” Damon said. “They had experience and winning records but not everyone is going to be a great fit just because of experience and success. They are great fits because their character sets them apart.”

Warner and Smith both cited the small-town atmosphere of St. Augustine and the close-knit Flagler community with their decisions to take the positions.

“Flagler sells itself,” said Warner, whose Saints teams went 17-36 in his first two seasons before finding themselves last year in a season that included a school-record 16-game winning streak. “I didn’t know a lot about it but a friend of mine told me the job was coming open and he sent me some photos. I thought, ‘wow … I’m ready to learn about this place.’”

Smith played and coached a total of 18 years at Georgia College, so a hard sell was needed to get him to move his family of four.

“My plan was to ride it out at Georgia College the rest of my days,” Smith said. “Jud was my boss for one year there and I knew his vision and his leadership. He has high integrity and does things the right way. So, there was a trust there. And once I got here, I realized how much the people at Flagler and this community make this place great.”

Warner, Smith had to rebuild

There was work to be done for both coaches when they arrived at Flagler.

While Clark had led the Saints men to 10 20-win seasons, the Saints had losing records in his last nine. Erika Lang-Montgomery, who was the women’s coach for 10 years, posted 18-9 and 21-8 marks in 2018 and 2019, but the Saints were 6-20 in 2019-20 before she left to join the University of Florida staff.

The transfer portal proved helpful for Warner. Jaizec Lottie came to Flagler from Arkansas-Little Rock, became the Peach Belt player of the year last season and is trending towards another one this year. Guards Curtis Lewis (Rockhurst University) and Derrick Ellis Jr. (Mercyhurst) and forward Kohl Roberts (Georgia College) have also transferred.

However, Warner has plumbed a wide swath to recruit players from Florida to the Midwest, bringing in versatile swingman Jalen Barr from Charlotte, N.C., 3-point shooting specialist Chase Fiddler from Huntsville, Ala., bruising forward Chris Metzger from Fort Lauderdale St. Thomas Aquinas and another sharpshooter in Spencer Bain from Overland Park, Kan.

Smith benefited from recruiting within his own program. One key holdover from Lang-Montgomery's last team, Jaizana Mathis, stuck with him and she’s averaging 14.3 points and 4.1 rebounds this season.

But the glue has been point guard Tori Pearce, a gritty competitor who signed with Lang-Montgomery from Tallahassee Community College, but followed through when Smith got the job.

"She's as tough a competitor as I've ever coached or seen," Smith said.

Pearce has averaged 15.9 points per game in three years with the Saints and sprinkles contributions over the entire stat sheet. She has eight double-doubles this season and has done it with points and assists three times.

“I like that Coach Smith is family-first,” Pearce said. “He cares more about you as a person than he does as a basketball player. There’s chemistry on this team and because we’re connected, we produce more.”

The NCAA rule granting another of eligibility because of the COVID-19 pandemic also helps. It’s given Lottie, Metzger and Ellis another season on the men’s team, and done the same for Pearce, Mathis and forward Sadie Russell on the women’s team.

However, every one of those players had a chance to enter the transfer portal and perhaps upgrade to an NCAA Division I program.

Lottie echoed Pearce in implying it would be like leaving your own family.

“I didn’t want to go somewhere else and start over again,” he said. “St. Augustine is a beautiful place and I love the people who come to our games and support us, the students and the people who live here and love to watch us play. And we have unfinished business. We had a great season last year but we left something out there. I wanted to come back and help get it.”

Teams have similar styles

The Flagler men’s and women’s teams have much in common. They're led by two dynamic guards in Lottie (22.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 5.4 assists per game) and Pearce (17.6 points, 7.2 rebounds, 5.9 assists (fifth in the nation) and 2.8 steals (32nd).

Neither is deadly from the outside (but good enough to keep defenses honest) and are adept at slashing to the basket with a series of moves to keep defenders off-balance.

“Sometimes it’s hard not to be a fan when you watch Jaizec do what he does,” Roberts said of his teammate.

Warner and Smith believe in going deep to their bench, getting in transition as much as possible and being disruptive on defense. The Saints men have seven players averaging 6.9 points per game or more and those seven average 20 or more minutes per game.

Five women’s players average 8.4 points per game or more (including former Creekside player Taylor Gardner) and 11 players average 11 or more minutes per game.

“I wanted guys who love to compete, love to play and love to play for each other,” Warner said. “We want to be disruptive at both ends of the court.”

Last week’s 79-66 victory over Augusta was an example of the Saints’ explosiveness on offense and defense.

Metzger broke a 59-59 tie with 6:52 left by working for a good shot inside, off a feed from Lottie. Ellis then made a steal, got the ball out in the open court to Bain, who then fed the ball back to Ellis for a transition layup.

Metzger rebounded a missed shot, which led to a 3-pointer by Bain off a Lottie assist. Lottie rebounded a missed shot and Roberts showed his muscle by getting a basket in the paint. After another Augusta miss, Jalen Barr took a Lottie pass for a layup, and Roberts blocked a layup and started a fast break that ended in Lottie feeding Ellis for a layup.

In 3:21, the Saints staged a 13-3 run, with five players scoring one basket each. Three of the baskets were in transition and three were off halfcourt plays. Two were 3-pointers and four were in the paint. And Lottie, the team’s leading scorer the last two seasons, wasn’t one of the players who scored.

He did, however, have three assists.

In the women’s game, it was a similar script. Augusta shaved a 16-point Flagler lead to eight points with 8:17 left. But in short order, Pearce scored six points, Gardner hit a 3-pointer and Russell, Mathis and Sharale McCormick scored in transition to put the game away.

Family fun at Flagler

The combination of pressure defense and attacking offense by both Saints teams often result in an entertaining day of basketball for fans who catch a home doubleheader.

In addition to the students, entire families come to the games, from couples with young children to elderly fans.

After the games are over, kids are allowed to flock down to a corner of the bleachers near the locker-room entrance to exchange high-fives and fist bumps with Flagler players on both teams.

“It’s been an amazing experience,” said Roberts, the beefy, 6-foot-7, 270-pounder who can go full-tilt in the low post against players such as Augusta University's 7-foot-1 Tyshaun Crawford, or pop out to hit 3-pointers from the top of the key. “You’re walking down St. George Street and total strangers see us and say, ‘hey, great game last week … we’ll see you Saturday.’”

Damon said the increased attendance isn’t the largest revenue stream for the athletic department. Last year’s historic season for the men’s team was wasted, in a sense, because only 250 fans were allowed for home games because of the pandemic.

However, winning two conference titles, a regional title, reaching the Final Four and getting a game on national TV generated area, state and national publicity that’s immeasurable.

“Our revenue comes mostly from corporate sponsors and donors,” he said. “But the notoriety of making the Final Four was more than this college had ever experienced in the past. It drives interest in the college and has affected enrollment. There has been a big difference in visibility.”

And everyone is in agreement that having the men and women playing well at the same time is a bonus. Since 1976, a span of 46 years, the two teams have finished the season with winning records at the same time only eight times.

“Mo [Smith] is one of my great friends,” Warner said. “He’s done an unbelievable job with that team and it’s exciting for us. Winning breeds success here, no matter which sport wins. I’m a fan of all of them.”

“Our heart is with them when they win and with them if they lose,” Smith said of the men’s team. “It’s a bond we share, a wonderful relationship. We’re all one big family.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Chad Warner, Maurice Smith leading Flagler basketball programs to new heights