Kingswood Oxford School has announced that 1997 KO graduate Durelle Brown, a former Manhattan College men’s basketball standout who then played professionally for a decade, will be the head coach of KO’s boys’ varsity basketball team starting with the 2012-13 season.
Brown will replace Garth Adams, who coached the Wyverns for 12 seasons and won a New England championship with his 2011 team. Adams, who also serves as KO’s director of athletics, will take over as the director of athletics at Cannon School in Concord, N.C., on July 1.
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Brown, who served as Adams’ assistant coach for two seasons, said he is thrilled with his new position. “It’s literally like a dream come true,” he said. “Twenty years ago this year, I was applying, interviewing and touring KO, and here I am now as the coach. … I don’t want to be anywhere else. I remember the experience here and how much I loved it.”
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Brown said the way Adams welcomed him as an alumnus when he returned to KO several years after graduation laid the groundwork for his desire to be back at the School. “When I met Coach A, he just opened his arms to me. He told me, ‘This is your home.’” Looking back, Brown said, he realizes Adams has been welcoming to every alumni player. “He wants us to be around the kids. That slowly started forging the idea of me wanting to be here [coaching].”
Adams said he is pleased with Brown’s appointment as the next head coach of the Wyvern squad. “I couldn’t be prouder of Durelle and his selection as our new head boys’ varsity basketball coach at Kingswood Oxford,” he said. “Durelle brings great knowledge and vast playing experience at the highest level. He has tremendous character and will be the best role model for our students at KO as well as a fabulous ambassador for the School.”
In addition to the New England title, Adams’ teams made eight appearances in the tournament playoffs. He amassed a 196-96 record during his tenure at KO.
Brown said he envisions a smooth transition, as KO boys’ J.V. coach Jason Lambert, a 2003 KO graduate, has been named his assistant coach for next season. “My goal is to maintain all of the honor and dignity that Coach A brought to the program, and now I get to put my touch on it,” he said. “You also want to be working with someone on the same page as you, and to have Jason it means a lot. It’s the idea that he has the same pride in KO that I do.”
Brown, who was a four-year varsity player and two-year team captain during his time at KO, went on to be the fourth all-time leading scorer at Manhattan, where he earned a B.A. in communications. A two-time captain at Manhattan, he is the college’s all-time field-goal percentage leader. He never missed a college game, playing in all 112 contests that he was eligible to take the court. He also was named twice to the First Team All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Brown played professionally in Argentina, Brazil, Holland, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela.
