A.C. Flora Athletic Director Charlie Wentzky
The 2014-2015 school year was a banner year for A.C. Flora athletics. For Falcons’ athletic director Charlie Wentzky, it was a continuation of what has been a historic period for A.C. Flora sports.
Wentzky arrived in the fall of 2011 after coaching baseball at Spring Valley since 2004. As a former Falcons’ assistant baseball coach from 2002-2004, Wentzky knew what he was getting into.
“I had a very good understanding of A. C. Flora itself, having worked here for two years,” Wentzky said. “I knew a couple of coaches who were still on staff. When I got here, I didn’t want to come in and just start changing things right away because there had been a lot of things that had been done really well. My approach was to trust the coaches who had been hired to do their jobs, and as we navigated through the year, if I saw something we ought to tweak or change, then we needed to look into doing that.”
Wentzky has overseen some monumental achievements by A. C. Flora athletics. In November 2011, former coach Dean Howell guided the Falcons’ football program to a school record 12 wins and the program’s first semifinals appearance.
A.C. Flora’s Rion Davis and Diquan Day Grant celebrate the Falcons’ 2013-2014 Class 3A Boys’ Basketball Championship.
That achievement seemed to jump-start the run of success many A.C. Flora programs have enjoyed.
In the spring of 2012, the baseball team won its first state championship since 2007. The boys’ golf team captured the third of what is now six straight state championships.
During Wentzky’s first year, three teams advanced to the quarterfinals or further in the playoffs. That number nearly tripled the following year, to eight teams. Success has remained steady since then. Overall, ten different sports have made it to at least the quarterfinal round in Wentzky’s four years; five of those teams have won at least one state championship.
Considering the success during his tenure, it would be easy for Wentzky to take the credit. However, he is quick to redirect the accolades.
The A.C. Flora baseball team celebrates its third straight Class 3A state championship.
“When you combine all the pieces of what our coaches do, the athletes do, what (strength and conditioning coach) Micah (Kurtz) does, and then the support we get from our principal to do those things, its been a recipe for success. It’s worked well for us,” Wentzky said.
After Wentzky’s first year at A.C. Flora, he met with all the coaches and talked about his expectations. He didn’t talk about winning region or state championships; instead, his expectations were to simply make the playoffs. It has been a goal that has been met by most of the Falcons’ 22 sports.
The ride has not been easy for Wentzky. The first-time athletic director says the job has come with a lot of learning along the way. Just months into it, he was tasked with coordinating A.C. Flora’s Upper State Championship game against Bluffton. While he wasn’t sure exactly what to expect, he had been a part of this type of event as a player at Westside High School in Greenville and as an assistant coach at Spring Valley.
A.C. Flora golf team members Dwight Cauthen and Michael Beal hold the Falcons’ sixth straight Class 3A state championship trophy.
Hours before game time, Wentzky didn’t know how many fans would show. They began arriving two- and- a- half hours before the game, and by kickoff, approximately 3,000 tickets had been sold. While it was the biggest gate in school history, it became a challenge to get all the fans in the stadium by kickoff.
Most fans waited to purchase their tickets at the gate, causing massive lines that stretched well into the parking lot. To get the fans into the game in a timely manner, Wentzky had to hold separate lines in the parking lot to sell tickets. He was also tasked with setting up for the opponents and accommodating their needs. It was a learning experience he used when the football team again advanced to the semifinal round in 2014. It has also helped him in other sports, such as the baseball team’s three straight state championship series or important basketball games.
A.C. Flora’s Daniel McClam and Jack Pondy hoist the 2015 championship trophy.
Another challenge for Wentzky has been replacing successful coaches. With the announcement of Harry Huntley’s retirement from the boys’ golf team, Wentzky has now had a hand in hiring all but three coaches at A.C. Flora.
Possibly the most important one was replacing Howell following the 2012 season. After Howell had changed the culture of Falcon football, it was imperative for Wentzky to find a coach who could continue that success. He found Howell’s replacement in former Ben Lippen coach Reggie Shaw, who went on to lead A.C. Flora to the semifinals in 2014.
One year later,Wentzky had to find a new head coach for the boys’ basketball team after coach Leon Brunson stepped down following the team’s first state championship since 1986.
Wentzky was under the gun from fans to hire a coach who could get the team back to the state championship game in 2015. When he announced the hiring of Joshua Staley, Orangeburg-Wilkinson’s girls’ basketball coach, it raised the eyebrows of some of those same fans. For Wentzky, he saw a successful coach, despite the difference in the team’s gender.
A.C. Flora’s boys’ tennis coach Amy Martin hoists the 2015 Class 3A State Championship trophy as players Austin Powell and Richard Kneece look on.
Staley got the boys’ team back to the state championship game in 2015, but the Falcons fell to Midland Valley.
This year, Wentzky faces another large challenge in replacing Huntley, who coached the six-time defending state champion boys’ golf team. While boys’ golf doesn’t garner the same fan reaction as football and basketball, rest assured Wentzky will have the same standards for this coaching hire as he did for the other two.
“Any time a quality coach leaves, you have a very difficult time in replacing them because there is a lot of uncertainty of whether you’re going to be able to hire somebody of the same caliber,” Wentzky said. “At the same time, you would like to think you are getting a better coach. We’ve been very blessed the coaching hires we have made have worked out for the better here and have kept us going in the right direction.”
One unsung hero for the success of A. C. Flora athletics is the environment created by the fans. Wentzky credits public address announcer Jim Stevens, who has been volunteering his services for ten years, with helping to create that environment. The support from coaches and athletes has also been critical.
What has made A.C. Flora’s run of success impressive isn’t just the state championships in baseball, boys’ golf, boys’ basketball, boys’ tennis, or boys’ soccer; it’s the depth of the success. Girls’ tennis, boys’ lacrosse, girls’ soccer, and girls’ basketball have also advanced to at least the quarterfinal round over the course of the last four years. The girls’ cross country team and the swim team had the best finishes in school history during the past school year; each team finishing third in Class 3A.
There’s no way to tell now if the success will continue into the next school year or beyond. However, there is reason to believe it might.
Four of the top runners from the girls’ cross country team return in 2015, along with most of the swim team. Many of the Falcons’ teams will break in players who have been a part of the success.
For Wentzky, the ride so far has been a success. The move he once thought to be a risk, considering he was leaving a school where he had been for seven years, has paid off through four years.
“Sometimes, the risks you take are worth taking. You never know what’s going to happen. You can’t be afraid of failure. I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve been here.”
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