Bryan College has a brand new pair of first-class athletes.
Throughout their four-year careers at FHS, seniors Canaan Drake and Chad Wilson have been among the hardest-working athletes to wear the Panther red. After years of training, instruction from Panther coaches, and representing Franklin on and off the court, Drake and Wilson signed their official offer letters in the Drake Enterprises gym May 13.
Chad Wilson
When Chad Wilson was not selected for the Macon Middle School basketball team, the young guard wasn’t sure if he would continue his playing career. When former Clemson University forward and local Amateur Athletic Union coach Tony Christie heard about Wilson, Christie encouraged Wilson not to give up on his dream.
“Principal Maslin from the middle school called me and said, ‘Hey, there’s this kid I need you to mentor,’ so I went over to the school and met with Mr. Maslin and Chad,” said Christie. “We talked about basketball, and I told him I had an AAU team. He said, ‘I know, it’s the Big Cats.’ I told him we didn’t have a team that young because we only had a 16-year-old team, but I said ‘You can play whenever you’re ready,’ and I gave him a Big Cats shirt. … Two weeks later, I just happened to drive by going to a community league game. I’m sitting there looking, and I see him playing. He started scoring, and I sat there and counted – one, two, three, and another three… He had 46 points, and I was like ‘He got cut from the middle school team?’”
Despite not making the MMS team, Wilson refused to give up on the game, doubling his efforts in the gym and eventually honing his skills on the Big Cats. By the time he enrolled at FHS, Panther coaches were impressed with the athletic guard’s work ethic.
“We had a hard practice,” said FHS men’s head coach Doug Plemmons, recalling one evening after a team session. “At the end of practice, Jay Bueck wanted to get another workout in, and he said ‘Chad, why don’t you stay with me and let’s work out.’ So they did, and about an hour after we had finished practice, I was wanting to lock the gym down and go home. I walked out in the parking lot just kind of looking around, and I saw Chad’s mom sitting in the car. I said ‘Do you want me to go in there and tell them to come on?’ She said ‘No sir, he’s right where he needs to be, and I’ll sit here as long as I need to.’”
As Wilson’s parents, Stephanie and William Moore, watched their son commit to play for the Lions next season, the many hours of sitting in their cars while Chad worked out finally came to fruition. Thanks in part to his constant desire to improve, Wilson has been an indispensable part of Panther basketball in the past four years, creating space on the floor with his speed and agility and generating offense through pinpoint passing and outside shooting. For his part, Plemmons said unequivocally that Wilson will be the hardest-working player in Bryan’s program the day he sets foot on campus, and believes the guard will soon be one of head coach Don Rekoske’s favorite players. For Wilson himself, putting pen to paper was the culmination of a long, tough journey
“It feels good,” said Wilson when reached for comment after his signing ceremony. “It’s like a dream come true with the route I had to take personally, and never making the middle school team. I kept pushing, and with the atmosphere of the high school, people just gave me a chance. It feels good – hard work pays off.”
Canaan Drake
Since she first set foot on the FHS campus four years ago, Canaan Drake has been one of the Panthers’ finest female athletes. In her time with the basketball and volleyball programs, the senior has been one of the Panthers’ quiet leaders, setting an example for teammates with her work ethic while being one of the most dangerous players on the floor. In signing to play volleyball for Bryan, finishing her career as one of FHS’s most valuable athletes, Drake’s coaches say they will be losing a model athlete.
“I think of things like tough, hardworking, competitor,” said head volleyball coach Bekah Brooks of the qualities that come to mind when talking about the senior. “Believe it or not, this is the most silent leader you’ll ever see, but the biggest competitor you’ll ever face. She hates to lose more than any person I’ve ever coached. [She’s] kind, a Christian athlete, a great role model and always has a smile on her face. She always has food – if you need a snack, look in Canaan’s locker.”
After the middle blocker helped FHS earn its first conference title in a decade en route to a Mountain Six Offensive Player of the Year award this season, it’s understandable Brooks would be disappointed to see Drake go. As good as the senior was for FHS volleyball, ranking 2nd in blocks, 4th in kills and first in hitting percentage across the conference, she may have been even more important to Lady Panther basketball.
“Ultimate teammate, ultimate person,” said head basketball coach Scott Hartbarger. “This year we were up in one of our games, and we were rotating people in and out. It was Canaan’s turn to come back into the game, and she says ‘I don’t want to go back in, let somebody else.’ That’s a description of what she’s all about – she’s all about her teammates. Come to find out, at the end of that game, she was one rebound away from a triple double. She gave that up for her teammates.”
In addition to being one of the conference’s best players, protecting the rim with top-notch defense and rebounding and ranking 11th among all 2-A players statewide with 14.8 points per 32 minutes, Hartbarger said Drake’s selfless approach to the game makes her a near-perfect player to coach. While the happiest people to see Drake sign Thursday were members of the Bryan volleyball program, also high on that list were the senior’s parents, who themselves are Bryan alumni.
“I graduated from Bryan in 2000,” said Canaan’s father, Josh Drake, after the ceremony. “I had mixed feelings about her going to Bryan, but when I took her, it felt very comfortable. It’s a great environment – it’s a small school, very safe, so I’m super-happy for her to go.”
“It’s bittersweet. I’m sad that she’s leaving, but I couldn’t be more proud,” said Canaan’s mother, Sarah Dills. “If you do a good job as a parent, they leave you, and that’s kind of what stinks about it. … I still have my favorite professor there, and we went to visit the other day and I said ‘Watch after my girl!’ It’s home to me, and I’m just so proud.”
After four years as one of Franklin’s best overall athletes and quite possibly its finest teammate, Drake will enroll in her parents’ alma mater as a highly touted volleyball recruit. Aside from playing for a team that advanced to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics tournament last year, Drake said singing with Bryan simply felt right.
“I’m really excited. Excited to finally get everything done,” she said. “My parents went there, and when I went to the court, I just knew it was the right place. The coaches were so nice, and the teachers were too. It’s just great.”