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Greg Ackles, the new head men’s basketball coach for Wake Forest High School and former coach at Southern Vance High School (SVHS) and Vance-Granville Community College (VGCC), appeared on the WIZS Coach’s Corner Tuesday.

Serving as the head men’s basketball coach at VGCC for the past two years, and at SVHS for the five years prior, Ackles now takes on a Wake Forest team with a recent 1-9 conference and 5-20 overall record.

While Ackles has his work cut out for him, he said his experience with team building and motivating players to be competitive – as witnessed in doubling the number of VGCC wins during his two-year coaching tenure – will serve him well.

“I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I know what I’m capable of and I know my ability in terms of building a program,” said Ackles. “The expectation is the same regardless of any job I take on: to get the players to be competitive.”

Ackles said he has already been in talks with the Cougar’s Junior Varsity basketball coach and has an online meeting scheduled with players this evening for a general meet-and-greet. It is expected that the majority of the players, with the exception of the four seniors who graduated, will be returning for the next season.

With the recent retiring of VCHS basketball coach Wilton Baskett leaving an open position at the combined high school, Ackles said he “heavily debated” his options, but ultimately decided to apply for the Wake Forest position and to accept the resulting job offer.

“I want to say thank you to Vance County because they treated me well the past seven years at both the high school and at VGCC. Hopefully, we can make this thing work at Wake Forest.”