Rose City reunion

Published 9:00 am Thursday, November 30, 2017

THOMASVILLE — During the 2009-10 season, Carmenonique Dawson was a standout junior on a Thomasville girls basketball team that won 24 games and made the state quarterfinals. Leading that team was a first-year head coach named Thomas McAboy.

Fast forward a little less than a decade, and both are back in Thomasville after their careers took them in different directions. On Saturday, the two will reunite as friendly rivals during the first of two games this season between Thomasville and Thomas County Central, with Dawson leading her old team, and McAboy at the helm of the crosstown Yellow Jackets.

Dawson earned Region 1-2A Player of the Year honors in 2009. She moved on to play college basketball at Fort Valley State after high school before returning to Thomasville to become an assistant under the now-departed Antonio Wade.

She was promoted to head coach in the offseason after Wade’s departure, and she credits her former coach with teaching her about what it took to be successful.

“Coach McAboy taught me so much about the game,” Dawson said. “He taught me so much about being disciplined while playing the game. He’s one of the people that helped develop me as a player and got me into the position that I was in. He helped me a great deal on getting into college and getting prepared to play in college, from the weight room, practices, the extra work he would provide me with in the offseason. He did a lot to help prepare me to get to the place that I am.

“He’s a guy that taught me so much and poured so much into me. Now I get to use what he taught me against him, so to speak.”

McAboy coached at Thomasville until 2013, leading the Bulldogs to the final four during his last year there. He left to take a head coaching position at Coffee County the following season, and returned to coach Central, his former rival, back in April.

“I’m a Yellow Jacket and I’m committed to Yellow Jacket nation,” McAboy said. “I just love being in Thomasville. You can’t go wrong at either school. I know it’s bad blood between the two rivals, but you can’t go wrong. I’ve been blessed.”

When McAboy was coaching Dawson during her junior year, he saw the kind of toughness she displayed during game against the Yellow Jackets. Dawson was playing on a hurt ankle, which ended up being worse than the sprain the Bulldogs thought she had. Despite that, Dawson made a critical play in a thrilling rivalry game.

“She’s as competitive as they come,” McAboy said. “When I had her, she played against Central on a broke ankle, and did a game winning bank shot. We found out immediately after the game that her ankle was broke. It’s an interesting fairy tale story, I guess, that being one of the biggest memories I have of her playing.”

Being able to coach her former team was already an exciting prospect for Dawson. Being able to do it against her former coach is something she doesn’t take for granted.

“This game on Saturday is a very exciting experience,” Dawson said. “Not only did I play for Thomasville High, but the very coach that I played under is at the rival school and I get to coach against him. This is something big. Not too many people get to have this type of experience.”

“That’s one of my girls,” McAboy said. “I love her to death. We’re so much alike — our birthdays are one day apart. She’s family, so family get into fights. We’re gonna get into one Saturday, but I’m gonna love her before, dislike her doing it, and love her immediately after it. I’m sure it’s going to be the same for her.”