VES names Staples basketball coach

Twelve years after graduating from Virginia as the NCAA’s all-time leader in 3-point goals, Curtis Staples believes he can help turn Virginia Episcopal School’s boys basketball program into better than a long-shot contender in the extremely competitive Virginia Independent Conference.

“I’m not coming to keep it the same,” Staples said of the Bishops’ varsity team. “If it ended up being a powerhouse, it wouldn’t shock me because I’m going to work hard.

“There’s going to be some really good changes immediately that will definitely help,” he added. “It may be a slow process, but I’m committed to achieving excellence at VES.”

Staples grew up in Roanoke, leading Patrick Henry High School to a Group AAA state championship as a sophomore in 1992 before transferring to Oak Hill Academy, a boarding school in southwest Virginia, and winning a national title in 1993.

After leaving UVa, where he still ranks ninth on the all-time scoring list with 1,757 points, and second in NCAA history in 3-point goals (413) behind Duke’s J.J. Redick, he was drafted by the Chicago Bulls in 1998, the year of an NBA strike. He opted to play professionally for eight seasons in Europe and one year with the Roanoke Dazzle, never making it back to the NBA.

He has lived in the Lynchburg area for the past 11 years, raising his 12- and 9-year-old sons while coaching several AAU teams and directing numerous basketball camps, including two at James River Day School this summer, one at the downtown Jubilee Center and one at William Fleming High School in Roanoke starting Monday.

Incoming VES headmaster Tommy Battle said Staples’ work locally — more than his resumé as a prep, college and professional player — were his best selling points for the position of basketball coach and program development officer.

“The biggest impression Curtis makes for me is a guy that loves kids, wants to know them indvidually and to see them grow,” said Battle, also a UVa graduate. “That is evidenced by his work at the Jubilee Center and in summer camps he’s run for years. He cares about them as people first.”

After years of traveling overseas, Staples is happy to have a job that will keep him closer to home, and in constant contact with the students at VES.

“I’m at a point now where it’s more important for me to be more locally based,” said Staples, who settled in Lynchburg while at UVa in the late 1990s due to its proximity to both Roanoke and Charlottesville. “It (is) time for me to be more at home and around my family and an opportunity to be closer to my boys.

“VES is a school I was familiar with, the atmosphere there, (so) it felt like a good fit,” he added. “I will be on campus every day, not just for practice. I’ll be there all day ... to help student athletes to become more well rounded, and have influences in their lives.”

Staples most recently served as program director and consultant for Atlantic Coast Athletic Clubs, developing programming for young athletes at ACAC facilities up and down the East Coast.

As VES’s program director, his responsibilities will include fundraising, student development and admissions, at a high school that has seen its enrollment slip from approximitely 250 when Battle graduated in 1983 to 185 students this past year.

“His role here will be bigger than just coaching the team,” said Chris Starr, VES’s new communications director. “He’ll be developing programs for the school to connect to the city of Lynchburg. He’ll be raising community awareness about VES and bringing more people on campus to see what we do here, helping us expand our market.”

Staples also will have a direct impact on the school’s “Toward Full Stature” program. That is an idea conceived by VES’s founder, Bishop Robert Carter Jett, which Battle paraphrased as “Learning about one’s full potential,” with the role of the school’s faculty to “Meet students where they are in order to take them where they need to go.”

“He will influence not only basketball, but our whole program,” Battle said, noting Staples may teach a public speaking class. “He brings instant credibility. He’s a man of many talents.”

In recruiting new students, Battle wants Staples to be proactive in matching their goals with those of the school.

“Kids have to be of strong character, people who can succeed academically here as well as flourish as athletes in this environment,” Battle said. “We’ve got a rigorous college preparatory program. They have to be able to do the work.”

He cited an ABC acronym used by Skip Prosser, the late men’s basketball coach at Wake Forest, as a model VES strives to achieve: “Academics, basketball and character,” Battle said. “It’s a simple recipe for the kinds of kids we will seek.”

Besides drawing and developing student athletes from around the area who may need the structured atmosphere VES provides to succeed both academically and athletically, Staples plans to attract foreign exchange students to the school who can help the basketball program flourish.

“There is a huge pool of talent in Europe, and that is one of the avenues we’ll be looking at,” he said. “Definitely, I will utilize those contacts I have there, and have already started to do so.”

As far as the style of game he expects to implement during practices in the King Field House gym and showcase in games at the Van Every Athletic Center, Staples wants to get back to the basics before flaunting any fast-break fireworks.

“I like a much more up-tempo game, something I enjoy as a player,” he said. “But I also want to keep the focus on fundamentals, something that’s been lost in the game. I want to know that they have all of the fundamentals mastered (first).”