IWA’s Vaughan reaches 600 wins
Published 10:10 am Monday, January 26, 2015
NEWPORT NEWS
Isle of Wight Academy Coach Benjamin Vaughan joined an elite coaching fraternity on Friday night with his team’s 47-35 win over Denbigh Baptist Christian.
Isle of Wight Academy’s Benjamin Vaughan holds Friday night’s game ball. On that evening, his Chargers defeated the Denbigh Baptist Christian Minutemen, and he got his 600th win as a coach.
Vaughan joins only two other men — Jack Baker of Norfolk’s Maury High School and Paul Hatcher of Robert E. Lee High School — as members of the 600-win club and secures his place among the basketball coaching elite in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is the only independent-school coach to reach that plateau.
A flock of well-wishers, including his family and current and former players and their families, hailed Vaughan after Friday’s game. A graduate of The College of William and Mary, Vaughan is in his 44th year at Isle of Wight Academy, his 39th as head coach and his 25th as headmaster.
Since Vaughan earned his 599th win on Dec. 21, the Chargers had endured a seven-game losing streak. One of those losses, a 70-69 defeat to Suffolk Christian, was to a team they had beaten twice previously this season.
On Friday, the Chargers established themselves early. They jumped out to a 14-9 first-quarter lead and were ahead 23-18 at halftime on Bryce Casey’s 10-point effort during that span. Denbigh Baptist led the contest only briefly when Brandon Holden’s basket with 5 minutes to go before halftime made the score 15-14 in favor of the Minutemen. Isle of Wight scored nine of the next 12 points to take the lead into the locker room at the midway point. In the second half, the Chargers outscored the Minutemen 24-17 on their way to the 12-point victory.
Casey finished with a game-high 20 points.
Isle of Wight ran its record to 4-16, 2-9 in the Metro Athletic Conference. Denbigh is 1-14, 0-9.
