Lincoln Charter’s dream of winning title for coach falls just short in 1A boys final

Scott Fowler
·3 min read

Lincoln Charter’s tumultuous boys basketball season came to a difficult end Saturday, as Wilson Prep earned the N.C. 1A high school basketball championship with a 65-58 comeback win.

Lincoln Charter led the entire first three quarters and by six points to start the fourth, but Wilson Prep mounted a furious charge to capture its first state championship in any sport. Wilson Prep took its own six-point lead at 57-51, then held it for the final minutes and celebrated on-court.

For Lincoln Charter, this season will forever be remembered at the school for two things — the death of assistant coach Jamie Seitz at age 51 from COVID complications on Dec. 27, and the basketball team’s journey to the state-title game before falling one win short just 10 weeks later.

Before the game, the Lincoln Charter team all wore T-shirts emblazoned “Seitz 22,” honoring their former coach and the number that has long been so significant to his family.

Jamie Seitz had worn the number throughout his own high school basketball career, as have several other members of the family, and his death had occurred at 22:22 in military time. All of the Lincoln Charter fans in the stands at Wheatmore High, where the game was contested, also wore the T-shirts.

Lincoln Charter’s basketball players all wore “Seitz 22” shooting shirts before Saturday’s 1A men’s championship game between Lincoln Charter and Wilson Prep in Trinity, N.C. The shirts were in honor of Jamie Seitz, an assistant coach for the team who died from COVID on Dec. 27, 2020, and his son Carter Seitz, a senior for the team who also wears No. 22.

Carter Seitz, a senior center who is Jamie’s son, wore No. 22 in the actual game, as he always does. He started in the final as usual and drew a charge on Wilson Prep’s first possession. Seitz fouled out with five rebounds and two points with 1:14 left.

Wilson Prep (7-2) gradually found its footing behind senior guard Devyn Bullock, the game’s MVP, and a team effort for the charter school from Wilson, N.C., that actually played more games in the postseason (five) than in its COVID-shortened regular season. Bullock had 13 points and seven rebounds, while Eric Wynn had 17 points and 10 boards.

Lincoln Charter (16-3) got 15 points from forward Sam Cogan and Elijah Burnette and 12 from Troy Fulton, but got outscored 26-13 in the fourth quarter.

Wilson Prep players react after winning the school’s first state championship in any sport, beating Lincoln Charter 66-58 in the 1A men’s championship game Saturday, March 6, 2021.
Wilson Prep players react after winning the school’s first state championship in any sport, beating Lincoln Charter 66-58 in the 1A men’s championship game Saturday, March 6, 2021.

Down 55-51, Lincoln Charter’s Cogan was called for a charging foul, and the resulting protest culminated in a technical foul on the Eagles. Lincoln Charter never came closer than five points after that.

Each high school received 75 tickets to distribute, which made for a gym that was about a third full but still reverberated with screams on a Saturday afternoon. The players wore masks, as they have had to all season, but the presence of fans gave the event a dose of normalcy in this basketball season like no other.

Lincoln Charter, a public K-12 school whose Denver campus is 25 miles northwest of Charlotte, had won the 1A championship in 2017 under head coach Bradley Gabriel when Seitz was an assistant.

The team had dedicated this season to the Seitz family. Lincoln Charter led by eight at halftime, but shot only 7-for-24 for the second half and had 21 turnovers for the game.