GAINESVILLE — Gainesville boys basketball didn't have to look far for a new head coach.
The Red Elephants announced on Thursday that top assistant Chuck Graham -- who helped recently-departed coach Benjie Wood mold Gainesville into a dominant force -- will step into the head coaching role after Wood left to intitate the program at Cherokee Bluff.
"It's a dream come true for me," said Graham, an Augusta native who played collegiately for Florida State before joining Wood's staff during the 2012-13 season at North Hall and then coming to Gainesville. "It's bittersweet that coach Wood is leaving, but the opportunity for me to represent Gainesville is a dream come true. I fell in love with the tradition here, the community and the kids.
"We've had some tremendous success over the last five years; I've coached in some big games over that time and helped develop a lot of young men here."
Graham, who recently assisted the Red Elephants to a Class 6A runner-up finish and back-to-back Lanierland and Region 8-6A crowns, acknowledges that next season's Red Elephants will appear very different than recent campaigns -- certainly in personnel.
"Next year's team will look totally different; we lost seven guys from this year, so it's impossible to avoid," said Graham, whose Red Elephants graduated standouts KJ Buffen, Bailey Minor, Ka'Juan Hale, Xavier Bledson and Jarred and Jarrel Rosser. "But we want to go back to the foundations, get back in the gym and play hard for each other. We also want to play hard-nosed defense, continue that aggressive, up-in-your-face, man-to-man defense.
"We've got two seniors in Brent Kelly and Maurice Hector that are high character kids and the kind of leaders that can really help the young guys along. Our young players have great potential. I'm excited for the challenge and the kids are too."
Graham says he will look to continue the frenetic, up-tempo play that saw Gainesville reach its first state championship game since 2013 and seventh in program history last season but will also balance that desire with the abilities of his players.
"Sometimes this season we would tell the kids to 'make the game ugly,' because we knew we could beat most teams down the floor and demoralize them," Graham said. "I'd love to keep that style, but I know we won't be as deep. We're still going to get out and run when we can. We're also going to get back to fundamentals.
"The kids we have coming back, they practiced against those seven that graduated, and that definitely made them better players. And we're going to have to be on our 'A' game every night because we're going to get everyone's best shot."
Graham graduated from Richmond Academy in 1999 as a highly-recruited player and played minor league basketball upon graduation from FSU.
"After that I decided to do something different, working at a couple of non-profits, but I missed the game, so I got back involved as a coach," said Graham, who was also an assistant at Thomson High from 2003-08. "I then had the opportunity to join Benjie Wood in his last year at North Hall, and I jumped at it."
