When Chunk Reid began his high school coaching career, it was in football. But while he was at Cochran, he was asked by Vidalia's superintendent to return to his alma mater. Once at Vidalia, he was asked to take over the head coach position for the girls basketball team to start the 1970-71 season. More than 40 years later, he's still coaching the girls team and on Jan. 17, the Lady Indians defeated Long County 67-28 on the road, earning Reid his 800th career win, with all wins coming at Vidalia.
Despite Reid's landmark win coming on the road, Long County was receptive to the feat and let the Vidalia program and its fans acknowledge it during the game.
"It was surprising and very special to me, especially since it was Long County's homecoming," said Reid, who has averaged 18.6 wins in 41 seasons during his remarkable run. "They let us interrupt the game and have a presentation on the floor and our principal spoke. (Long County) really went over backward for me and they're a special group of people."
Reid said Vidalia has further plans to commemorate the 800 wins, as it will have a special presentation this Friday when the Lady Indians host McIntosh County Academy in what will be the final home game of the regular season. Currently, the Lady Indians sit at 14-5 and are 9-0 in Region 2-AA and in position for a No. 1 seed in the state tournament. They've achieved their success - which includes a No. 13 MaxPreps ranking - despite leaning on five freshman. They have yet to lose to an AA school.
"We've played as well as we can," Reid said. "We're very capable."
Throughout Reid's 800 career wins, he said a few stand out to him. In 2010, the Lady Indians defeated Greater Atlanta Christian by 17 points in the semifinals after trailing by seven at halftime. At the time, the win was the first by a public school over a private school in the semifinals in seven years. The Lady Indians went on to lose to Buford in the only finals appearance of the Reid era.
As Reid continues to pile up the victories, the question is how long can he keep this going? He's been told that Al Copeland of Northeast Macon is the state's winningest active coach with 862 victories. With Reid averaging nearly 20 wins a season, it's conceivable he could reach 1,000 wins if he coaches another decade. That would put him at 80 years old. He said he'll coach as long as he enjoys it and as long as he's in good health.
But for now, he's just glad to be coaching the Vidalia Lady Indians.
"This is my home town and where I went to high school," Reid said. "It doesn't seem like that much time at all since I started and that all comes back to enjoying what you do. I've enjoyed it and I didn't think I'd be involved in basketball. But once I got into it after football it grew on me and I fell in love with it and stuck with it."
Send Adam Krohn an email at AdamKrohnAJC@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter.
About the Author
