Owls swoop in to win inaugural NSAC championship
Warren Wilson College ends shortened men’s basketball season on a high note
Fred McCormick
The Valley Echo
April 6, 2021
The Warren Wilson College Owls are the first champions of the New South Athletic Conference. Photo courtesy of WWC
The 2020-21 basketball season was unlike anything the men’s program at Warren Wilson College has experienced in the past.
Shortened to six games by a global pandemic, the campaign began and ended in March. However, as unprecedented as the season was, the Owls finished it by doing something no team had ever done before—emerge as New South Athletic Conference Champions.
“I couldn’t be happier for our program, and for the guys on our team,” Owls second-year head coach Dominique Boone said of his team’s March 27 victory over Mid-Atlantic Christian University. “These players put in a lot of work, and a lot was up in the air as far as whether or not we would even play. But they stuck with it, even though nothing was guaranteed.”
Warren Wilson began the provisional process to become an NCAA Division III member in September of 2020, months before the traditional opening of basketball season. While the program maintained its membership in the United States Collegiate Athletics Association and the Eastern Metro Athletic Conference, athletics were suspended by the college until March 1, 2021, in an effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
As play resumed, the Owls were one of four collegiate programs in the state, including Blue Lights College, Carolina Christian College and Mid-Atlantic Christian, to join the NSAC in its first year of competition. The first three games of the season, however, were canceled due to COVID-19 protocol.
More than a year since the Owls last took the court, Boone and his team began the season, March 6, with an 83-80 loss to Mid-Atlantic Christian, and went 1-3 through four regular-season games in the shortened campaign.
“They had to be resilient,” Boone said of his players. “They couldn’t harp on the things that were going on around them at the moment, and focus on the task at hand. We came into the season with a roster of 14, and four guys got hurt. At one point, we were down to nine players.”
The program overcame many challenges before picking up its first win of the season, March 24, with an 84-65 victory over Blue Lights College. That game would set the Owls on course for a championship run through the inaugural NSAC tournament.
Warren Wilson College men’s basketball head coach Dominique Boone holds the 2021 NSAC championship trophy, March 27. Photo courtesy of WWC
Senior Brent Davis wasn’t sure he’d play basketball again when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020. The 6-foot-3-inch Charlotte native in his third season with the Owls was already looking forward to graduate school at the University of Tennessee, where he will work in student athlete development.
Hoisting a championship trophy after a difficult year was a “great way to end my career,” he said.
“It really meant a lot,” said Davis, who led the Owls with 14 points in their 77-66 championship victory over the Mustangs. “The past few years we’ve been building here, but this year was special because I got to bond with a group of guys that are really special to me. Just to be able to say I went out with a win on a competitive team and got some hardware made me feel like I helped do something for the program. And, I feel like this is just the beginning of what these guys have to offer over the next few years.”
Davis and fellow senior DeMarco Jackson earned second-team all-NSAC honors to close out the season while sophomore Jerry Daye was selected for the first team.
While winning the conference championship is the highlight of the season, the campaign will be memorable for many reasons, according to Davis.
“It was rough in a lot of ways,” he said. “Not only do you have a pandemic, but you’re also from game to game and practice to practice having to test and hoping everyone comes back negative and can compete. And, you don’t just have to worry about your team, but the other team, too. Then there was everything else going on in the world, like major social justice issues, and it had a huge impact on the mental health of a lot of us.”
The ability to win the championship despite these challenges was a “testament, individually and as a team, to what you can really accomplish,” Davis added.
Five Owls finished the championship game with double-digit point totals, which emphasized a common theme for the program this season, according to the coach.
“When we share the ball and play together, nobody can beat us,” Boone said.
The head coach also credited assistant coach Jacob Senyo for the Owls’ success this season.
“If it wasn’t for Jacob we wouldn’t have been able to accomplish everything we did this season,” Boone said. “He’s helped elevate us, as a team, in so many ways.”