Black History Month spotlight: basketball coach L’Dreco Thomas

The Cedar Shoals that current Athletic Director and head basketball coach L’Dreco Thomas graduated from was very different from the one he teaches at today. For one, the school building was entirely different. 

“The first thing is different buildings. The building you see today was not here,” Thomas said.

A large feature of Thomas’ Cedar experience was the school spirit that he felt from every facet of the Cedar community. 

“A lot of students had a tremendous amount of pride in the school, and we took the name Cedar Shoals seriously. Overall it was a time where parents, teachers and students were all geared towards advancing one step at a time,” Thomas said. 

While at Cedar, Thomas participated in multiple sports, playing football all four years of high school and JV basketball for one year in 10th grade. 

“The biggest thing was the camaraderie we had, the lifelong bond I have with my teammates. We set goals and did everything we could to achieve those goals,” Thomas said.

Now the Athletic Director, Thomas oversees sports and athletics at Cedar. Former coaches helped him along in his path to taking the position. 

“My former coaches and teachers were able to lay the foundation for me becoming athletic director,” Thomas said.

In particular, Thomas credits Charles Turner, the former girls basketball coach and Athletic Director at Cedar, for his success in his current position. 

“Just being around him (Turner) taught me a lot about being the Athletic Director and about coaching basketball, which are things that I didn’t even know I was going to do,” Thomas said.

Thomas believes that athletics can enrich a students life outside of the classroom, providing them with essential life skills. 

“By having a strong athletic program, students who don’t have that discipline in their lives can learn how to handle and face adversaries, and I think that improves the whole school climate and culture,” Thomas said.

In fact, Thomas knows personally what it feels like to receive life-changing discipline.

“In 10th grade, I was making not so great grades, I was making Bs and Cs, occasionally an A. But I had a teacher named Shirley Daniel, my U.S. History teacher,” Thomas said.

Danial recognized thomas’ academic potential and pushed him to excel in and out of school.

”She pushed me to be the best student I could be, she would not let me be average,” Thomas said. “I had never participated in academic activities outside of school, but me and two of my friends did a social studies fair, and we were able to win 2nd place. She raised my potential past what I thought it could be, she said, ‘I want you to stop being average and I want you to be great.’”

Reflecting back, Thomas realizes just how far Daniel’s determination to not give up on him went.

“I was admitted to the University of Georgia. I never expected to get in, I had just applied to apply,” Thomas said. “If it wasn’t for her, I might never have been able to do that. And the cool thing about Ms. Daniel is that the first year I was teaching 6th grade social studies at Hilsman, her daughter was in my class.” 

Thomas hopes that Cedar can bring back the school pride that its students had when he attended.

“I want to see us get back to taking pride in our school, taking pride in cleanliness, wearing the orange and blue and taking pride in what it means to be a jaguar,” Thomas said. “We have to teach qualities to the kids and give them something, so every day that when they come here they can feel proud.”