Duncan looks back
PLYMOUTH — When the Plymouth Lady Pilgrims take the floor for the first time in a new season it will mark the end of an era of sorts.
Since 1992 one face has been a constant on the Plymouth sideline.
That year Dave Cox took over as head coach of the Lady Pilgrims and brought along Dave Duncan as one of his assistants. When Cox retired at the end of the 2011-12 season Duncan took over the program and just this spring decided it was time to retire as well.
“When you get older it’s always in the back of your mind what point do you think you are going to go to,” said Duncan of the decision. “It was in my mind from the end of the season and I just made the decision that it was time.”
“One of my best friends
Dave Cox told me try to get out while you still have good health. I have good health and I’m excited about the next chapter.”
a graduate of Norwell high school and IUPFW, Duncan moved to Plymouth in the early 80s. about a decade later he met Cox.
“In the early ‘90s, Dave Cox caught me in the gym and said, ‘Hey, you’re a tall guy, you want to coach basketball?’” said Duncan. “Dave had just gotten the position of head coach and I told him that I had played but I really didn’t know anything about coaching so I would have to think about that.”
The rest — as they say — is history.
“We had our own jobs and we were trying to build a program and so you’d work 40 hours at your job and after your job, you’d work 40 hours at trying to build a program,” said Duncan. “What a great experience that was. He taught me a lot and we learned a lot together.”
Along the way, Duncan has influenced a lot of players in the Lady Pilgrims program.
“I have never known a gym without Coach Duncan in it,” said Brandi Sullivan who played for Duncan and has been a member of his coaching staff since 2015. “He is the face of Lady Pilgrim basketball. He and Mr. Cox have done so much and have put in countless hours building the program to be what it is today. I’m so incredibly grateful to not only have been coached by him but to have gotten the opportunity to coach alongside him as well. He’s not just Coach Duncan anymore. He’s family.”
Duncan had those influences himself when he first got into coaching. He counts himself fortunate for what he was able to learn from his peers.
“You hope you take a little bit from everybody you are involved with in your life,” said Duncan. “Not only do you take advice from people, but you learn a lot from just sitting back and watching people and I learned a lot from a lot of people. You have to give thanks to them because that’s who made you who you are.”
Duncan leaves behind a legacy of people he has touched and influenced on the way. Haley Harrell played four years for Duncan in high school and actually a few years before that.
“I’ve had a lot of coaches growing up playing all kinds of sports, and Coach Duncan is the coach that I have played for the longest, from middle school through four years of varsity basketball,” she said. “Before every high school game he’d come up to me and say ‘Haley, you have 32 (minutes) in you tonight?’ Every time I’d respond with ‘You got it.’”
“He instilled confidence in me and helped shape me into a leader,” she said. “I carry both of those traits into everyday life now. I’m so grateful for his investment in me and so excited for him to enjoy this new season of life.”
“I have never encountered anyone else who is as passionate about the game