BRADENTON, Fla. – Longtime Eckerd College men's basketball assistant coach and alumnus Floyd Watkins recently accepted a head coaching position in the same sport at Southeast High School in Bradenton.
Watkins, a native of Bradenton, contributed 12 years of coaching experience on the staff of Eckerd Head Coach
Tom Ryan. He has played or coached in eight of the program's 11 NCAA Tournament appearances and graduated from Eckerd in 1995.
"I am very excited for him to be going back to his hometown, the high school he played for and where he coached before," said Ryan in a statement. "He's been very good to me and to our program. This move is bittersweet because while we're sad to see him to go, it's a great opportunity and we're proud for what he's done at Eckerd."
Watkins was instrumental in lifting the Tritons to former head coach Jim Harley's 500th career win on the sidelines, sinking a game-winning basket in double-overtime against Florida Southern College.
A former assistant coach at his prep alma mater of Southeast High School, Watkins returns to officially become the school's third head coach in the past 30 years.
His prominent hire was featured this week in the
Bradenton Herald by Alan Dell:
Floyd Watkins moved back to his childhood home in the Southeast High district last fall to take care of his ailing mother.
Less than 10 months later, he has been named the new head boys basketball coach at Southeast, where he starred and was a Bradenton Herald All-Area selection in 1991.
The best thing is that his mother is well.
Watkins played at Eckerd College and was an assistant coach there from 2001 until recently. He also was an assistant at Southeast for three years before taking the Eckerd job.
Watkins, who accepted the job Tuesday, becomes only the third boys head basketball coach at Southeast in the last 30 years. He replaces Elliot Washington, who recently resigned after 14 years to take the head coaching position at State College of Florida.
Bob Carroll was the Seminoles' head coach for 16 years before Washington and coached Watkins and Washington during the program's greatest era.
"Floyd was one of the guys I reached out for to see if he would be interested," Washington said. "He is part of the Seminoles tradition and pedigree that Carroll established. He was always a worker. He played hard and did everything the coach told him to do. He is a good person on and off the court."
As a 6-foot-6 spindly-looking wing player in the 1990-91 season, Watkins averaged 18.5 points. He was the MVP on a Southeast team that went 26-6 after losing All-American Clifford Rozier and three other starters the previous season on what might have been the school's best team.
"When I moved back into my old house (on 20th Avenue East), Southeast had a great coach in Elliot. I was commuting to coach at Eckerd and wasn't thinking about another job," Watkins said. "Then Elliot takes the SCF job and things open. The program has had only two head coaches in 30 years and it's a real honor, especially at a place that I will always consider to be part of my life. I am living in the same house where I was taken from the hospital when I was born."
Watkins played in the heyday of Southeast basketball from the mid-1980s through 2001 when the school produced three Mr. Florida's in basketball in Rozier, LeRon Williams and Adrian McPherson.
Watkins played with Rozier, knows Williams and was an assistant at Southeast when McPherson was a sophomore.
"It's a different world now in Manatee County for basketball. I know that," Watkins said. "But I think Elliot proved in 2004 (Southeast went to state tournament) that if you put a lot of effort into the program great things can happen," Watkins said. "I am not trying to make it 1990 all over again. I am just trying to put together a team that plays up to its potential. I want kids to know what a privilege it is to play for Southeast."
Watkins also saw success as a player at Eckerd, making the NCAA Division II national tournament his junior and senior seasons, including the Sweet 16 in '95.
He recruited Manatee County for Eckerd and signed former Manatee High standout Marcus Washington and Lakewood Ranch product Brian Cobb, who played for SCF last season.
"I believe Manatee County basketball is going to make a comeback," Watkins said. "As a recruiter, I got to meet a lot of players, and I believe kids become more interested in a program if they see it is being run correctly. I know this is a football county, but we can still have good basketball."
Watkins will only coach at Southeast. He will continue in his job as program director of Carlton Manor, Inc., in St. Petersburg, a residential facility that specializes in mental health counseling and therapeutic development of foster children.
He lives in Bradenton with his wife, Kinya, and their two children, a daughter, 7 year-old Jordan, a 2-year-old son Blake.
