{"id":9599,"date":"2020-02-28T12:55:12","date_gmt":"2020-02-28T17:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=9599"},"modified":"2020-03-05T14:15:29","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T19:15:29","slug":"princess-anne-high-school-coach-to-receive-state-recognition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/princess-anne-high-school-coach-to-receive-state-recognition\/","title":{"rendered":"Princess Anne High School coach to receive state recognition"},"content":{"rendered":"

-by Arrick Wilson, junior at Green Run High School<\/em><\/p>\n

\"""\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Coach Darnell Dozier has spent nearly three decades coaching basketball, most of those years at Princess Anne High School (PAHS).<\/p>\n

\u201cSome days we have good days, some days we have bad days and that\u2019s in any job,” he said. “But I would like to think that 99.99 of my days were good and positive for the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozier grew up in Trenton, New Jersey, where he coached boys basketball and also spent time in the Army. He later moved to Hampton Roads and closer to relatives. While looking for a job, he ended up at PAHS. Coach Dozier, who prides himself on honesty, admitted that the team at that time was, \u201cGod bless awful.\u201d So he asked the then-coach if he could help and was told, \u201cBe my guest, I need all the help I can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

And as they say, the rest is history. During his tenure, he won 10 Virginia High School League (VHSL) State titles, 11 regional titles, 22 Virginia Beach district titles and has made the state tournament 15 times. But his latest accomplishment has come recently, when he learned he will be inducted into the VHSL Hall of Fame. Even when considering all these achievements, Coach Dozier says he is most proud when he picks up the phone and hears, \u201cCoach, we\u2019re going to offer your kid a scholarship.\u201d This apparently happens a lot, given the number of former players who\u2019ve gotten full rides to further their education.<\/p>\n

When asked about the plethora of great players he\u2019s coached, he said: \u201cI could have a list as long as this table, and I would still leave some of them out.\u201d He then goes on to remember Okeisha Howard, Shareese Grant, Amber Mason, Ashley Mason, Kim Rodgers, Gadvia Hubbard, Xaria Wiggins and Makayla Dickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids\u2026wouldn\u2019t have been there, I don\u2019t think, if wasn\u2019t for me and the help of their parents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His nomination for the Hall of Fame is no doubt a nod to not only his basketball coaching skills, but also his mentoring of players.<\/p>\n

When asked about the future of Princess Anne basketball, he replied, \u201cIt better stay hot\u2026 I\u2019ve built a real dynasty here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozier then confessed that it has always been hard to think what he\u2019s done for the program has created a \u201cdynasty,\u201d \u00a0but he feels that now it\u2019s appropriate and right to call it just that.<\/p>\n

What does the future hold for the coach?<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the only fear I have,” he said. “Just leaving the game, and I don\u2019t know when I\u2019m going to leave the game….But I just hope it continues to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dozier will be officially inducted into the VHSL Hall of Fame in the spring.<\/p>\n

As part of the division’s annual Official for a Day event Feb. 25, where students shadowed school administrators and city officials, Wilson was part of the VBCPS Department of Communications and Community Engagement. He aspires to be a sports journalist and wrote this story for The Core and his blog AtTheCourtWithArrick<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

-by Arrick Wilson, junior at Green Run High School Coach Darnell Dozier has spent nearly three decades coaching basketball, most of those years at Princess Anne High School (PAHS). \u201cSome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9599","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9599"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9602,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9599\/revisions\/9602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}