By Temwa Chisanga
During the first week of the 2023 Summer League campaign, the Mustangs of Meade kicked off their summer league campaign with a bang. Despite missing a few key players, the Mustangs maintained composure and beat Alexandria City in a nail-biter that came down to the final few seconds of regulation.
While ‘25 G Isaiah Matthews played a significant role in the team’s huge win, hitting the shot to give the Mustangs the lead, Head Coach Dave McNeill led the charge and kept the group in the game. Interestingly enough, McNeill does not usually serve as head coach for the Mustangs during summer league, and was serving as a last minute interim head coach.
With the Summer League kicking off during a weekend when a lot of the coaches and players would be out of town, the Mustangs played their opening game with a next one-up mentality. The head coach position was no exception. When asked about what led to him having to step up, McNeill stated, “with all of our coaches out of town and our backup coaches out of town, it was a last-minute thing where I had to coach the game.” Luckily for the Mustangs, McNeill not only stepped up, but excelled in leading the Mustangs.
McNeill brought an energy that not many other coaches match. When the Mustangs’ opponent, Alexandria City, jumped out to a 16-4 to start the game McNeill did his part keeping his players and bench players engaged and energized despite the deficit. In addition, McNeill put in the right sets and called timeouts at the right time to limit Alexandria City’s momentum which led to a 16-6 Mustangs run in response.
Of course, McNeill did not take credit for the team’s win. With high praise for his players, McNeill spoke on how the team plays hard throughout the game, stating “those kids are actually just very resilient, that’s one thing that we always say about kids… That is one thing we try to instill in our kids and it builds a few dogs along the way.”
As it stands, the Mustangs of Meade currently sit at 3-4, but with a team that plays determined to win and a coaching staff that believes and supports them, expect the Mustangs to finish the season strong.