Lewisville welcomes new volleyball, boys basketball coaches

By Barry Byers - Barry Byers

RICHBURG -- Lewisville athletics director Floyd Drum introduced two new coaches on Wednesday -- Tony Busby for boys basketball and Rick Morris for volleyball.

Busby replaces Brian Dove, who retired at the end of the 2007-08 school year, and Morris takes over for Kim Manning, who stepped down to stay home and care for her child.

Drum said both come with impressive resumes and pointed out that both face rebuilding seasons. Basketball has one starter back and eight seniors graduated from the volleyball team.

Busby was born in Orangeburg and graduated from Edisto in 1991. He went to Gardner-Webb on a football scholarship for two seasons and played a year at UCF. He's spent the past 14 years in the Orlando, Fla., area, coaching AAU and private school basketball.

"Once you live in South Carolina, you want to get back," Busby said. "I wanted to come back and raise my family here. Florida has its tourism industry, crowds and a lot of different things going on. It's good to be back in South Carolina and smell the fresh air. And this area has a good environment."

Busby, 35, doesn't teach in the school system. He's a regional field teacher for the state of South Carolina and supervises 40 workers. He and his employees educate people on how to talk about diabetes. He moved to Richburg last year.

He spent his final three seasons in Florida coaching the varsity team at Orlando Christian Prep. Three of his players off a 26-5 team during his final year are playing in college. Another, 6-foot-9 senior forward Keith Clanton, has an offer from South Carolina. Busby said Clanton likes the Gamecocks, has offers from Penn State and Pittsburgh and is expecting one from Louisville any day.

Busby is familiar with Lewisville's program. His son, rising sophomore Cortell, saw playing time under Dove last season as a 13-year-old freshman.

"My system is one that creates mismatches," Busby said. "And in this system, our players learn from losses just as they do from wins. We want to constantly get better, learn by our mistakes and correct them.

"And education is high on my list because it carries you further in life. We'll be young as far as mentality. But our kids like to play and give 100 percent. We'll surprise some people this year.''

Busby and his wife, Laura, also have an 8-year-old son, Devon, and 5-year-old twins, son Skyler and daughter Breya.

Morris, 55, was born and raised in Rock Hill and graduated from Rock Hill High. He graduated from Winthrop with degrees in health and physical education.

Morris worked for the Rock Hill YMCA and later for the Rock Hill Parks and Recreation Department.

Now a pastor at Emmanuel Church of the Nazarene, he teaches history at Trinity Christian School.

"I have been around volleyball for years," Morris said. "I've done clinics, played and coached for a traveling team, which I did about everything for, including coordinating travel."

Morris also officiated high school volleyball and got back into it last year. He did several Lewisville games and learned the names of the Lady Lions. He heard of the opening through members of his congregation who are related to Manning.

"I talked to the assistant coach, Mary Hall, about the job," Morris said. "She was the head coach before, but wanted to remain the assistant coach because she runs a business in Rock Hill.

"We feel we'll be able to work well together. I saw last year that we have potential and told Mary that. Lewisville played some close games against some Class AAAA schools."