About The Coach
Darrell Hairston is an accomplished professional level player, scout and coach. He has worked extensively in developing skills and providing guidance to children, young athletes, NBDL, CBA and ABA league players as well as NBA.
Playing Background & Accomplishments
South Park: North Forsyth - Varsity Basketball 1979-1982
Kernersville Middle School 1977-78
Forsyth Technical College 1983-86
Played 5 years Professional Basketball in Pallacanestro Metis Varese Italy
Coaching History
The Atlanta American Basketball Association
Georgia Gwizzlies Head Coach 2004-2007
Continental Basketball Association
The Atlanta Krunk Head Coach 2008-2010
Pro-Am Summer Basketball League
D.H. Hoops Head Coach 2007-2011
YMCA
Famous Quotes
“I love working with the kids and helping them with life itself. People like my father (William Hairston) and my brother (William Hairston Jr.) were role models in my life and they were there for me. They showed me the right way of doing things and this (the DH Hoops program) is my way of giving back,” Hairston said. “I don’t want them to fall into the same traps I did. The little kids are great. You just have to put a little more time and effort into teaching them the fundamentals.”
Notable Coaches involved in DH Hoops Basketball Coaching Program
Jeremiah Boswell
Jeremiah is from Jasper, GA where he became an IST team All-State player at Pickens High School. From there, Jeremiah went on to play at Columbia University in the Ivy League. Jeremiah was a 3-year starter, 2-time defensive player of the year, and shot a school record 50% from 3-point range as a Senior. During that time and following graduation, Jeremiah worked for the NBA office in New York in the Player Development Department as well as Basketball Operations International.
After sitting out a season, he set out to reach his goal to play professionally. Following preseason workouts with the Atlanta Hawks, Jeremiah continued overseas, where he has played for six seasons in Asia, South America, and Europe. Jeremiah has continued to work for the NBA in the summers conducting camps and workouts in the U.S., China, and India. Since that time, he has gained tremendous respect as a basketball mind, and has become a member of the Atlanta Hawks part-time Basketball Developmen Staff.
James Maye
Dominican Republic National Team
2011 NBA ProAm League Team
From 4-10 to 16-2 during Summer League
Notable Players involved in DH Hoops Basketball Coaching Program
Jonathan Walker
Delaware State University Basketball Team
Beau Carter
Savannah State Basketball Team
K'Ja Johnson
Florida A&M University Basketball Team
James Maye
2011 NBA ProAm League Team
From 4-10 to 16-2 during Summer League
Will Jenkins
DH Hoops Alumni
Paul Jackson
Eastern Kentucky University Basketball Team
Max Ogletree
Rising 9th Grader
Theo Thebaud
Rising 9th Grade
- DH Hoops has gone onto make many of his students a successful basketball career for themselves by sharing his decades of experience and motivation techniques
- We offer private and group sessions to help your child master the sport of basketball.
- We partner with Douglasville, Cobb and Fulton county communities (primary areas served, but we consult in nearby locales).
Summer Basketball Camp
July 6th-10th 2015
Summer Basketball Camp
June 8th-12th 2015
Summer Camp
2014
Kernersville’s Darrell Hairston is paying it forward.
Courtesy Ducan McInnes - Kernersville News Thursday June 5, 2014
Kernersville native honors his two most influential coaches with youth basketball program
Kernersville’s Darrell Hairston has been positively impacting the lives of numerous youths and teens in the Douglasville/Atlanta Ga. area, and he gives the credit to two legendary coaches in the local area that had a gigantic impact on his life. As a standout basketball player at what was then Glenn Junior High School for one year, and for two years North Forsyth High School, Hairston was mentored by local legendary coaches Dale Ijames and Olin Shuler. Those three years and his relationship with them after he left high school have helped mold him into the coach and person he is today.
Hairston has been running the DH Hoops program for 13 years and has worked with hundreds of kids with a variety of backgrounds.
"I wanted to give back the way Coach Ijames and Coach Shuler did for me. They always taught me to give back. If you meet somebody, help somebody. They always encouraged me to give back to kids the way they did for us. They spent countless hours on things they taught us on the court and in life. I felt like a blessed kid to have them as my coaches, and I still keep in contact with them as much as I can," said Hairston.
As was the case with coach Shuler and coach Ijames’ teams, it is not just about the sport or about winning or losing with Hairston.
"What it (DH Hoops) is about is dealing with all kinds of diverse kids, some that come from broken homes. You try to get the kids to go to church, come to Christ and get ahead in their life. Hopefully they make it and do well. You don’t have coaches like Ijames and Shuler anymore though...the way they taught me and the passion they instilled in me for basketball, and to be a better person," said Hairston. "I have been married in Douglasville to my wife, Patricia Nelson Hairston, for 14 years and everything is for the good. It has been a blessing to me and the program has been very successful. I am just happy to be able to do this program to change young men’s lives and be a blessing to them in Douglasville."
Shuler coached high school basketball for 23 years and was the head coach at North Forsyth for 16 years. He compiled a 264-131 record, and in the 1984-’85 season guided the Vikings to a 23-2 record and a top ten ranking in USA Today. The team went 26-3 the next season and was also ranked in the top ten in the nation. The team was 40-8 overall from 1980-’82.
Obviously Shuler enjoyed coaching some outstanding teams, but discipline, good coaching and tough love had as much or more to do with success as talented players.
"The best teachers I had were also coaches. They looked at it is a duty. My view is the gym is a classroom. We never did anything in a game that we did not do in practice. Sometimes coaches get bad raps, but the good coaches are good teachers. When you are coaching a sport you are just teaching something else," said Shuler. "Part of the problem is parents want to be friends with their kids instead of parents. The same thing is true with education and coaching. You can’t be the friend, and you can’t be the buddy. You have to remember that you are the adult."
Team rules for both coach Shuler and coach Ijames were strict but fair, and sometimes resulted in some comical circumstances.
"Being on time was one of the biggest rules, and at one point we went seven years with nobody being late for practice. If you were late you had to run a windsprint for each minute, and do it in less than 24 seconds or you got to run it again. One of our kids, who later played in college, was late and he told me ‘it was not his fault, my mom forgot to set the alarm.’ I told him, ‘Well in this case I am going to make an exception. If you can get your mom to run your wind sprints for you we’ll forget about it.’ Everybody started laughing and he was never late again," said Shuler.
Coach Ijames, who is better known for his success in baseball in the area, was the first coach to have a major impact on Hairston. Ijames coached basketball for 15 years before focusing on only baseball. In 17 years at Glenn High School, Ijames guided the Bobcat baseball team to a 324-94 record, fifteen straight state playoff appearances, fourteen conference championships, three state runner-up finishes and one state championship. He also received numerous Coach of the Year honors from conference, regional and state recognition organizations. He served as the Executive Director of NC Baseball Association for four years, expanding the organization’s growth and united it with the National Coaches Association. He is currently the general manager for the Kernersville Bulldogs, which have dominated the local collegiate baseball league for numerous years, and is a Major League Baseball (MLB) scout. But while his baseball resume is very impressive, his impact on numerous basketball players in the area, including Hairston, is profound.
"At that time it was tough here. Segregation had ended and they were integrating the schools. Darrell was one of the few black kids in Kernersville and it was a tough situation. We stayed at the school and worked with the kids as much as we could. Darrell was a good player, a hard worker and he was one of those kids you had to chase out of the gym. We got to know the kids. You needed to know where they were coming from," said Ijames. "If you are doing it (coaching) the right way and for the right reasons, like Darrell is, you can impact hundreds of kids in an area."
Both Shuler and Ijames have noticed how a number of things have changed since they both taught and coached in public schools.
"They wanted you to do everything. If you were a man and a new teacher, you were expected to coach. The first questions were: What will you help coach and what clubs will you sponsor? In basketball, even at the junior high level we would play 1-3-1, 2-2-1, 2-1-2 defenses, half court traps and full court traps," said Ijames. "Now it is mostly one on one defense like in the pros. They play their way, and in every sport they have gone to position coaching. Another thing is you don’t see nearly as many kids out playing pick up basketball. The sad thing is that in some places it’s turned into a drug culture and a gun culture, and it’s not safe sometimes for the kids to be out."
For Shuler, how coaches sometimes treat players, and a lack of focus on fundamentals are not necessarily positive changes in recent years.
"Times change but some things stay the same. The kids are bigger, stronger and faster, but you have a lot fewer two sport lettermen. Everything is more specialized and the kids play all the time. They are on travel teams, play AAU and go to several camps, but fundamentally the talent is down. During the last few years I coached I had some college coaches tell me they would not recruit in Winston-Salem because the kids were fundamentally weak. Kids today sometimes look at discipline as punishment. If you do what you are supposed to you are rewarded, and if not, you pay the penalty. But kids want to be disciplined. They want to be accountable and praised when they do well," said Shuler.
While his junior high and high school days in Kernersville were sometimes difficult, Hairston believes it made him a better person. While he has been in Douglasville for over 14 years, in many ways he still considers Kernersville to be home.
"Kernersville was not easy initially. You had to cross some tough paths, but it prepared us to be great people. Having leadership like we had made other people want to listen to you. Being around successful people in Kernersville helped me. Kernersville is my home town. It was a privilege to be home a couple of weeks ago. I walked down Nelson St., went downtown and went to Musten and Crutchfield. It brought back memories. I got to see some high school classmates and people that were part of my life growing up as a kid," said Hairston.
Seeing his two favorite coaches was perhaps what Hairston enjoyed most about his recent trip to Kernersville.
"It was so good to see my coaches. I love my two coaches. They taught the same rules my father, William Hairston Sr., taught me. They taught me not only basketball, but to be a better person and to be a giver, not a taker. That is life long. That stuff will be with you the rest of your life. That is what I am doing now. It starts at home, in the classroom and then on the court. That is what coach Shuler and coach Ijames taught. It worked for me and I am trying to prepare people to be better people," said Hairston.
K'Ja Johnson a Future Star
Chronologically, K-Ja Johnson has a long way to go toward his goal of becoming a big-time basketball star
In terms of I.Q. and work ethic, however, the 14-year-old from Stewart Middle School might already be there. Forecasting fame and fortune on anyone so young is a dicey prospect, but even those who confess to being guarded about such things find themselves doing it.
Before Johnson has dribbled in a high school uniform, he is already on the radar at college programs like Georgia and Kentucky.
"He"s got to be among the top 100 eighth-graders in the country,"said Clay Dade, a former NBA scout who is the founder of the invitation-only Jr. All-American Camp. "He"s got a competitive fire that a lot of kids his age don"t have."
Johnson led Stewart Middle School to a championship against Chapel Hill Middle School two weeks ago. Dade got a chance to see that game in person, and said he was prepared to be disappointed.
"He was in foul trouble all game and I was disappointed because I didn"t feel I was going to get a good look at him," Dade said. "But he was a man on a mission. He didn"t play cautiously. After being down eight, they ended up winning by 14 or 17 and he sparked the turnaround."
The thing that seems to stand out about Johnson is the hours he puts in trying to get better.
"I"ve seen him work out at L.A. Fitness on Chapel Hill Road and I was very impressed with his diligence and hard work. He"s different from a lot of kids who believe they can play off talent alone. Also, when you watch him, he"s a player who has the ability to make plays. A lot of kids are only effective when they have the ball. I"m impressed with his tenacity, his nose for the ball and his will to win."
The coach who works most closely with Johnson, Darrell Hairston, echoes many of the same sentiments.
"Man, his attitude is unbelievable," Hairston said. "What attracted me to him is he"s a straight-A student who separates himself from trouble. His work ethic is off the chart. He"s always in the gym — he"s a gym rat. Personality-wise, you"re not going to find a better kid. The things he does without being told. I mean, he even called my wife the other day just to say, „Happy Valentine"s Day." "
At 14, Johnson is 6 feet 1, handles the ball like a point guard and can score like a shooting guard. Doctors predict he will grow to be at least 6-7.
His apparent maturity for such a young age is what surprises a lot of people.
"Coach [Mark] Fox at Georgia thought I was lying when I told them he wasn"t even a freshman yet," Hairston said. "Georgia and Kentucky will be putting him on their recruiting list as a freshman and that"s unheard of." Hairston says that Johnson compares favorably with locally produced talent now in the NBA, such as former Norcross High and Wake Forest star Al-Farouq Aminu, now with the Los Angeles Clippers.
"I know Al-Farouq and he had nowhere near that skill level at [Johnson"s] age," Hairston said. "[Johnson] does things that I"ve never seen a 14-year-old do.
"One of my assistant coaches said, „Some days, he looks like a 22-year-old, some days he looks like a 14-year-old.' I"ve had him playing with adults since he was 12. He"s got a lot of heart, but he"s a humble kid."
Hairston has been coaching Johnson since the youngster was 7 1/2. Even then, the coach knew there was something different about him.
"He wanted to do things over and over," Hairston said. "He"s so willing to learn and work hard. When we had the snow a few weeks ago, he was in the gym four hours a day all five days. The NBA doesn"t even go that long. And then he called me up and asked if I could open up the gym for him. I had to tell him, „No. I can"t even walk to my mailbox because of the snow.
Now, Hairston wants to keep Johnson pointed in the right direction, toward college. Said Hairston: "I told him, "At the rate you"re going, you"ll get there."
Walker signs up to play basketball at Morehouse College
Lithia’s Johnathan Walker (second from left)
signs up to play basketball at Morehouse College.
Also pictured, from left to right,
are DH Hoops Instructor Darrell Harriston, mother Lisa Walker
and father Byrom Walker.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Lithia’s Walker signs with Morehouse
Local standout will have opportunity to start as Freshman
Rick Winters
Sports Editor/Douglas County Sentinel
The offseason has been a busy one for recent Lithia Springs graduate
Johnathan Walker, who has been traveling around to various colleges
looking for a home this upcoming season.
Walker finally found that home at Morehouse College where he accepted
a a
partial scholarship to play for the Maroon Tigers.
“They are giving me a great opportunity and were willing to take
a chance
on me after I broke my ankle in my senior season,” Walker said of
why he
choose to attend Morehouse. “They will allow me to show what I can
do on
the basketball court and further my education.”
Walker also added that going to Morehouse opens up a lot of doors and
provides connections to people once the college experience is over.
The Lithia standout went to several schools before electing to put on
the
Maroon Tigers jersey. He traveled this summer to Liberty, Wagner, Tuskegee
and College of Charleston.
Morehouse is coached by Grady Brewer, who has been in charge of the
program for the past 14 years and was an assistant with the school for
13
years under former legendary coach Arthur McAfee.
The Maroon Tigers are coming off a terrific year in which they went 20-8
overall and 16-2 in the SIAC conference. Morehouse fell to Benedict in
the
conference championship game.
According to Walker, Brewer has told the young freshman that he will have
a chance to win a starting job on the team this year.
“He said the best player is going to play and he needs a player
at guard,”
Walker said. “If a freshman comes in and is the best person for
the spot
then he will play.”
Long term, Walker believes he can be a standout player in college and
hopes to eventually turn pro.
Walker followed his brother Byrom to Lithia High School and started all
four years. He became one of the members of the three headed monster that
dominated Lions basketball along with Beau Carter and Neal Phillips before
the injury sidelined him in the middle of his senior season.
“When I broke my ankle my senior year it hurt not to finish out,
especially with a team that was ranked in the state,” Walker said.
“We
probably could have done a lot of things if I had stayed healthy but it
is
what it is and everything happens for a reason.”
Walker also played AAU ball with the West Atlanta Warriors coached by
Stephen Carter. The team was comprised of mostly people from Douglas
County, according to Walker and had two players sign Division-I basketball
scholarships and two sign D-I football scholarships.
“It was great to play with people I grew up with at AAU and we really
excelled,” Walker said. “We did a few things that brought
a little shine
back to Douglasville because we are not really looked at that much.”
Walker was also a member of Darrell Hairston’s DH Hoops Academy
where he
would get training and help give back to the community.
“Johnathan is a hard worker, a good student and has a great character,”
Hairston said. “He comes to work every day and he will do well at
Morehouse under Coach Grady.”
--
Rick Winters
Sports Editor/
Lithia's Carter signs with Savannah State
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Lithia's Carter signs with Savannah State
Point guard chose school that will put focus on student over athlete.
Beau Carter, the former point guard with the Lithia Springs High School Lions, has accepted an offer to join the Savannah State University Tigers basketball team in the fall of 2013. Savannah State University is an NCAA Division-I Program and member of the Mid-Eastern Atlantic Conference. Carter's decision was confirmed following an official visit to Savannah State with Head Coach Horace Broadnax, members of the coaching staff, and the team recently During his campus visit, Carter had an opportunity to meet with members of the administrative staff and was impressed with the guidance and support provided to insure the student athlete's academic success. Carter also chose Savannah State because of the wide array of undergraduate degrees, most notably in the College of Business Administration, focusing on marketing and management.
As from a basketball standpoint, Carter looks forward to playing for a D-I school and a coach who was a member of the 1984-85 Georgetown National Championship team.
Broadnax extended Carter an invitation to join the program as a preferred "walk on" with an an eventual athletic scholarship forthcoming. "During the workout with the team, the coach was impressed with Beau's speed and agility," said father Stephen Carter. "The expectation is that he is always moving and can set the pace for the team."
Carter also looked at Delaware State and Morehouse College. Both were considering athletic scholarship offers. Carter also received a $42,000 academic offer from Delaware State. Carter has a chance of playing in his first season at the 4-year school thanks to his speed and quickness and playing time could be based on how quickly he learns the offense. The point guard was a four year starter at Lithia Springs under both coach Jason Slate and coach JW Cantrell.
"The transition between Coach Slate and Coach Cantrell provided me with the opportunity to play under different coaching styles and adapting to change to continue to win," Carter said. "My basketball career at Lithia Springs clearly assisted in developing me into a more versatile player and stronger individual." Carter maintained a 3.5 GPA at Lithia and was a member of the DECA Club.
"Beau is a great and a four year letterman," said Lithia coach JW Cantrell. "He worked hard to get to where he is. If a lot more kids worked as hard as him we would have a lot better team." Cantrell likes the choice of staying in the state and going to Savannah State University. "It was a great choice and he will get the Hope and Pale Grant to help him out," Cantrell said. "He just has to get stronger. He is a small guard but he should be fine. He just needs to keep lifting in the weight room."
Phone
(678) 668-5099
Hours
MON: 9AM–7PM
TUE: 9AM–7PM
WED: 9AM–7PM
THU: 9AM–7PM
FRI: 9AM–7PM
SAT: 9AM–4PM
SUN: CLOSED