PCCS perseveres with only five players

PANAMA CITY - The loneliest place for Brent Dillard these days is on the Panama City Christian School bench.

He sits there alone, coaching his team, all of which is on the court.

Dillard took over the Crusaders in early January with seven players on the roster. A couple of weeks later, two players were suspended from the team for poor grades.

That left Dillard, 23, with just enough to field a starting five.

“It gets kinda lonely on the bench,” Dillard joked. “When I get excited on the bench, I don’t get to share it with anyone. When I get excited the whole gym knows.”

Since Dillard took over during winter break, PCCS has gone 4-2, finding itself at 7-8 overall and 6-4 in the Panhandle Christian Conference. The Crusaders play in the PCC East Regional this weekend at Covenant Christian School in Panama City.

With only five players, Dillard had to delve into his limited coaching background. He was offered the job by school officials in December when he was on a brief vacation here after graduating from Southeastern University in Lakeland, where he played basketball.

Dillard graduated early with a degree in sports and recreation management. He always was interested in coaching, he said, but never had plans to enter the profession.

The former Crusader player moved back home with his parents, Stan and Bessie Dillard. He is paid by the hour and doesn’t teach at the school. Dillard isn’t sure about his future at PCCS. He’s planning on going back to live out his lease in Lakeland, but said he’s open to coaching the Crusaders next season.

For now, he’s just concentrating on five boys: sophomore Nate Smith, eighth-grader Ricardo Manning, junior Tabyas Williams, junior Bradley Barton and ninth-grader Eric Jones.

That’s the entire PCCS roster.

“Sometimes we call it the Fantastic Five,” Manning said. “We’ve been on a little winning streak with our five guys but, you know, it’s kind of tough from time to time. Each quarter we get tired, but we get back on our hustle.”

Conditioning has become the Crusaders’ toughest obstacle.

“It’s good because you get to play the whole game, but you kinda need those breaks every once in a while,” Barton said.

Dillard said calling timeouts has become an art. While he uses them to discuss strategy, their main function is to rest his players. Practices are another story. Since PCCS can’t scrimmage five on five, Dillard puts the team through rigorous conditioning drills.

Sometimes if Dillard can find another body, they will scrimmage 5 against 2, but it’s mostly 3 on 3, with Dillard playing a position.

Dillard has implemented a fast-break offense and a trapping defense, trying to score quick to establish an early lead. That way his players possibly can coast a little. Otherwise, they realize they need to be smart on defense.

“You want to play aggressive defense, but you can’t play that aggressive with five people, because you can get a foul called … like that, just that easy,” Smith said.

On Jan. 18, Barton fouled out against Emmanuel, leaving PCCS with four players. Williams also rolled his ankle. The Crusaders still won, 71-62.

When PCCS walks into opponents’ gyms, Williams said fans stare and teams think it will be an easy win.

Jones said having five players has brought the team closer.

“We started playing like a team, acting like a team,” he said. “We play like players from the NBA. We come together as one team, and like they said, teamwork will win games.”