Former Coach Dave Odom Joins Former Players and Staff for Reunion

Odomania is hitting Colonial Life Arena this weekend. The celebration for the former South Carolina men’s basketball coach will bring approximately 80 former players, coaches, and staff back to their old stomping grounds to celebrate his impact on them as well as the University. There will be dinner and a cocktail hour on Saturday at Colonial Life Arena for former players, coaches, and staff members.

“As a basketball coach for 43 years, you have a lot of opportunities to enjoy people around you and what you do,” said Odom, who led the South Carolina program for seven seasons from 2001-08, earning 128 wins, which ranks third all-time in program history. “A good portion of my life that I enjoyed was being at the University of South Carolina. It just occurred to me that we had not had all of our players back together in a long time. As you get older, it means more to you. We put together a plan to get as many of the players and staff back. That includes everybody! I had no idea it would turn into something this big.”

The 2004 SEC Coach of the Year led the Gamecocks to four 20-win seasons, an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2004 and back-to-back NIT Championships in 2005 and 2006. While a couple of decades have passed, the relationships between coach and players are still meaningful.

“My experience with coach was life changing,” said former Gamecock Tre’ Kelley, who earned first team All-SEC honors as a senior in 2007. He scored nearly 1,500 points in his career and tallied the third most assists in program history (510). “When he came to D.C. to recruit me, everything he told me was reflected in my four years at the University, on the court and off the court. He helped me understand what my life was about at that time and what my life would be moving forward. He means everything to me.”

“Coach Odom means a lot to me,” said Brandon Wallace, who played for the Gamecocks from 2003-2007 and broke the school career record for blocked shots. He is the girls’ basketball coach at Gray Collegiate Academy in Columbia. “During that time in my life, having someone as steady and calm as Coach Odom was important. He helped me navigate a lot of challenges. He was a big part of my growth. Between he and (former assistant) Coach (Rick) Duckett, I take a lot of stuff from back then and try to make it translate to my kids that I coach. Coaches can change lives and that’s what Coach Odom and Coach Duckett did for me at Carolina.”

“He had been a major inspiration for me coming out of high school,” said Carlos Powell, who played with Carolina from 2001-05 and scored more than 1,500 points. “I think I was his first recruit at South Carolina. He took a chance on young guy out of Florence, South Carolina. I’m forever grateful for that. He believed in me as an athlete and as a person.”

“Coach was always a very caring person with his players,” said Barry Sanderson, who was an assistant coach for Odom for one year at Wake Forest and throughout his tenure at South Carolina. He’s now a high school coach and sports talk radio host in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. “He was always very detail oriented with the guys. We were always prepared. He made sure we always had a great plan for every game. The kids really enjoyed playing for him. We always had a staff that got along really well. It was a great experience.”

The relationship between Odom and his players didn’t end when their basketball days on campus were over.

“I try to talk with him at least once a month,” Powell said. “I still stay in contact with him and pick his brain a little bit. Winning the NIT Championship my senior year was some of the most fun I had ever had as a basketball player. That was one of the closest basketball teams I have ever been a part of. I’m very thankful for that. Without him, a lot of us wouldn’t be where we are now in life. I’m thankful for the opportunity to have him coach us.”

“We speak all the time,” Kelley said. “A few times a month. We check up on coach. We’ve always had a great relationship. I’ve seen him a bunch of times. I have a great relationship with everyone that was on that staff. When you have someone in your life that you spend that much time with in what’s a big transition in your life, they mean a lot to you.”

Although retired, Odom still loves the game.

“I miss a certain portion of coaching,” Odom said. “I miss game preparation and working with coaches and players to get a game plan ready. I miss teaching the game and teaching individuals about the game. I also miss the games themselves. I enjoyed the pressure of the games.

“It’s a different world now. My son, Ryan, is the head coach at the University of Virginia. I don’t feel like my generation left the game as well off as the generation before me did. I don’t feel like it’s a good place right now with all of this portal stuff and all the money. It’s out of touch with reality. It’s not that I don’t want the players to get paid, but when you look at it, it’s just so out of proportion to what is healthy. So, I do miss the game, but I don’t miss everything around it.”

Odom started his collegiate head coaching career by leading East Carolina for three years, before leading the Wake Forest program for 12 years, taking the Demon Deacons to eight NCAA Tournaments. He noted that his time at South Carolina was special for a lot of reasons.

“The University of South Carolina does not get enough credit for being a strong academic university in my opinion,” Odom said. “It’s as solid of an education that you can get anywhere, no matter what degree.

“I do hope that our players and our fans and the media appreciate the love that we had for our team and for the University when we were here. We won two NIT Championships, and that was extraordinary back in those days. Long after that is gone, the relationships that we have, player to coach and coach to player, are absolutely amazing. I hope everyone will remember that we did the best we could do with everything that was given to us. We’ll always be Gamecocks!”