It’s a Starkville reunion in West Point.
Last week, West Point announced former Starkville head boys basketball coach Greg Carter and former player Cam Skinner are the latest additions to its boys basketball coaching staff, which is now led by another former Starkville head coach – Woodie Howard.
Howard played under Carter, who spent almost two decades as the leader of Starkville boys basketball, and later became an assistant coach under him before taking over the program in 2021 for a three-year stint.
Now the duo are back on the same coaching staff at West Point in hopes of elevating the program to a championship level.
“It’s good to be back with (Carter),” Howard said. “I played for him and coached with him and a lot of things that I’ve learned I learned from him. So to be able to have him back and we reunited and try to continue the great things that we were able to do in Starkville in West Point. It was pretty big to be able to get him onboard.”
Carter, who led Starkville to four state championships, has spent the last year at Sumter Central in Alabama, as the girls basketball head coach. He said he’s excited to be back coaching in the Golden Triangle.
“Really we are just going in trying to establish a winning program and culture,” Carter said. “It’s good, I’m enjoying it. I think it’s going to be fun. (Howard) helped me win as a player and a coach, now it’s my turn to return the favor. … I like to win. I’m big on competition. I like the competitiveness of the sport so I’m just looking forward to getting back in this area and competing in this area again.”
Skinner also played basketball at Starkville and collegiately at East Mississippi Community College and at The W before starting his coaching career. He is coming from Ashland High School to West Point for his second coaching opportunity.
“He played for us in the 2019 and the 2020 (season) when we won back-to-back championships in Starkville,” Howard said. “He was one of our point guards and he has a very good basketball IQ. (He’s) very knowledgeable about the game and we know he can help translate that over to the kids we have now in their learning and development stages.”
So far in summer practice the trio have been working well together, priming their team for the upcoming season. Howard also said that another Starkville basketball legend has made his way onto his staff in West Point – 11-year NBA veteran Travis Outlaw.
“It’s been great,” Howard said. … “So just having a bunch of basketball knowledge in the gym and different eyes to see different things at times, and we can sit down after practice and talk about what we saw, what we look good at and what we need to improve. That’s always the good part of it.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
