PHS basketball coach resigns

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PHS basketball coach resigns

Sports

Friday, 04 March 2011 13:15

News-Gazette Photo/Andrew Sullivan

Poinciana Coach Jay Lunce talks to his team at a game during the 2010-11 season.

Jay Lunce took Eagles to playoffs past three seasons

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor
Poinciana boys basketball Coach Jay Lunce, who led the Eagles to its first district championship last season and three consecutive regional playoff berths, has resigned to pursue high school coaching opportunities in Georgia.

"It wasn't an easy decision. I hate to leave these kids, and I couldn't ask for better support from our administrators," Lunce, 34, said.
Lunce said he is making the move for family reasons.
"Part of it is that you do have better financial opportunities in Georgia," Lunce said. "But, there are no guarantees. Hopefully, things will work out."
Poinciana, 19-8, lost two weeks ago to Leesburg, 67-60, in the regional quarterfinal round. Poinciana led by 12 points in the third quarter when guard Stefan Moody, the team's spark plug, left the game with an ankle injury.
The Yellow Jackets played at the Class 4A state tournament this week.
"Yes, it could have been us," Lunce said.
It was the most successful season of Lunce's tenure, where he compiled a 114-134 record over 10 seasons. Several of his players earned college scholarships, including guard Dante Curry, a 2006 graduate, who signed with the University of South Florida of the Big East Conference.
Lunce said the most recent edition of the Eagles might have been the best overall of his tenure. The 19-8 record is the best for a Poinciana boys basketball team.
"It probably is, because we have four guys (Moody, Osanto Marc, Lex Curry and Sherwood Vinson) who could score," Lunce said. "The group we had my second year was good, too. It had four guys who could score, plus we had some size with Durrell Sykes (a 6-7 center who went on to have a successful D-1 college career)."
Lunce's 2002-03 team, 16-9, was the first PHS boys basketball team to post a winning record.
Lunce endured his most challenging season in 2007-08, when most of his team went to Liberty when the new high school opened.
"They took all my kids from the previous year," he said.
Poinciana Athletic Director Mal Harpell, the school's first basketball coach, lauded Lunce for an excellent career at PHS.
"He did a great job of being patient and building his program," Harpell said. "He went through that bad season when Liberty opened, but he didn't panic. He just stayed with his plan and brought it back and look what happened. They went to the playoffs the last three years, and they won the district championship this year and had their best record. He's a great role model for his players; the kids really respect him. He's going to be very difficult to replace."
For several years, Lunce has been a member of the Great Florida Shootout operations committee, assisting the Rotary Club of Kissimmee in putting on one of the state's premier high school basketball tournaments. Poinciana High hosted the tournament from 2005-08.
After a playing career at Williamsburg High in Kentucky, where he was the team captain, Lunce came to Poinciana in 2000 as an assistant to Coach Phil Wright. After Wright left the following season, Lunce was promoted by Principal Mike Brizendine.
Lunce turned down opportunities to join his brother-in-law, former Poinciana football coach Keith Simmons, as the basketball coach in Forsythe, Ga., where Simmons is the principal.
"I've tried to get him to come up here when I had an opening, but he said he was happy where he was," Simmons said in December at the Great Florida Shootout. "I'd love to have him. He knows as much about basketball as anyone."
Osceola High basketball coach Steve Mason called Lunce, "a class act."
Mason said Lunce successfully overcame hurdles at Poinciana that caused other Eagles athletic programs to stumble. The school lost half of its population when Liberty High opened.
"It's one thing to come and coach at Osceola, where success, tradition and talent is in place, and a whole other to turn a program around as he has done at Poinciana," Mason said. "It's great to see his 10 years of dedication pay off. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, and he will be missed in the Osceola County coaching ranks."