ROCKINGHAM — Things are starting to come full circle for Teddy Moseley.
Once a player for the Richmond boys basketball team, helping the 1996 squad make the first of back-to-back trips to the state championship game, Moseley is now getting a chance to coach on his old stomping grounds.
This past Friday, June 1, Moseley was officially named head coach of the Richmond varsity girls basketball team. He takes over a program that spent the last three seasons under former coach Rosalind McDonald.
“It’s an honor to come back and be the head coach where I played … and to do it alongside my former teammate Coach (Donald) Pettigrew, it feels like everything’s coming full circle,” Moseley said. “I’m very excited about the opportunity.”
Moseley and Pettigrew, who just wrapped up his first season as the varsity boys head coach, grew up playing basketball together and were key members of the ‘96 team that fell one game shy of etching its name in the history books.
Now, they’re at the head of the Richmond basketball programs and are looking to bring back that same winning mindset that resulted in a number of successful years a little more than two decades ago.
“When you look at Richmond Senior High School, you think of tradition — a heavy tradition,” Moseley said. “To be a part of it as a player and to now turn around and be a part of it as a head coach is just exciting. I’m elated. I really am.”
This will be his first gig at the varsity level, but Moseley is no stranger to the world of coaching. He coached the Raiders’ junior varsity boys team for a couple seasons (2005-06) and spent seven consecutive years (2008-14) as the skipper at Rockingham Middle School. He recently went back and coached the Rockets this past season.
Moseley also helped Pettigrew out a bit with the varsity boys during the 2017-18 season, which gave him multiple chances to get a good look at the varsity girls’ games during the final minutes.
And there was one thing he noticed about his soon-to-be team: its speed.
“We’re going to be fast. We’re going to get the ball down the floor constantly and play defense all over the floor. We’ll be pressing a lot,” Moseley said. “If you have girls who can get the ball up the floor, and stop the other girls from getting the ball up the floor, that’s a tremendous advantage.”
The Lady Raiders — who finished this past season with a 6-15 overall record — will be loaded at the guard position in Moseley’s first season, which he says is “very key in girls basketball.”
Rising junior Allexis Swiney was the team’s leading scorer this past season and will return with less point-guard duties now that rising sophomore Jayla McDougald is expected to play varsity the entire year.
With McDougald taking over the playcalling responsibilities, Swiney will have more opportunities to attack the basket from the wing. McDougald’s ballhandling will also set up more open three pointers for rising juniors Keionna Love, Layne Maultsby and Hailey Miller. Also, Taliah Wall, rising senior, returning will be a boost on the defensive end of the court.
“The thing with Jayla is that she’s been coached by her mother (Taneika Reader) who was a good basketball player here as well, so she has the athletic pedigree,” Moseley said. “We’re going to be very guard heavy this year.”
Moseley — a civics and economics teacher at Richmond — will be joined by new assistant coach Whitney Smith, who played college basketball at Campbell University and now teaches English at the high school.
He expects Smith’s insight to be a huge help during his debut season, as he went without an assistant coach during his years at the middle school level. His experience as a former point guard combined with Smith’s wisdom in the paint, he hopes, will help create a balanced look for the Lady Raiders next season.
“I think (not having an assistant) allowed me to see the game from different angles … but she’ll bring a lot of knowledge, as well, working with the post players,” Moseley added.