From the mountains to the sunny beaches - no matter where Randy McCoy goes, you can guarantee you'll find him on a basketball court. Many people say "basketball is life"...and for the Island Coast head coach, it really is.
"I've been very blessed to do it on every level," said McCoy. "High school, small college, NAIA, NCAA."
McCoy grew up in small-town Eastern Kentucky and before moving to Cape Coral and becoming a Gator, he spent four decades coaching in the Bluegrass State.
"I watched a documentary on him and I saw that he was really successful," said Island Coast senior SirJoshua Anderson. "He knows a lot, especially about when it comes to high school basketball being a leader. And that's really what I'm trying to pick up on, so I ask him questions all the time and he just helps me with that."
Rising to the top, he did it all the hard way, working his way up the ladder.
"My best friend was one of the best players in the state," said McCoy. "He told the coach at Pikeville that he would sign if he would give me a scholarship to be a manager, and that's how I got into it.
"Kids laugh all the time when I tell them I cleaned basketballs and cleaned the floor and it don't matter, but when I graduated, [Pikeville College head coach] Wayne Martin hired me to be a full time assistant."
He then followed Coach Martin to Morehead State, where he was an assistant for nearly a decade and his career took off. McCoy won the 15th Region championship in 1993 at Elkhorn City High School, took Pikeville College to an NAIA Final Four in 2001, won the All "A" Classic title with University Heights High School in 2008, and won the 15th Region All "A" championship in 2017.
"I think he’s one of the best coaches out here," said Island Coast senior guard Izaiah Bacchus. "And his knowledge too...it's a lifestyle. You have to love it too, if you're doing it that long."
It's the kind of lifestyle where even after having open heart surgery and hanging up the whistle in Kentucky after 40 years of coaching, he couldn't stay on the sidelines forever.
"I made the statement, I said, I quit, I didn't say I was retiring," joked McCoy.
"It just shows us him stepping up every day, coming to practice, coming to school, coming to games, even when he's not feeling good," said Anderson. "It just gives us the motivation to keep going for him."
Over the last five years, McCoy has adjusted to the differences between Kentucky and Florida - on and off the court - but he brought the same passion, dedication and intensity to Island Coast.
"I like his energy," added Anderson. "A lot of coaches, they’re all serious. Like when he's serious, he's also full of energy and gets the team hyped up."
"He gets mad sometimes but it’s discipline. It’s what we need," said Bacchus.
As the years and achievements continue to rack up, so do the countless relationships and memories.
"My wife and I, we don't have any kids, wasn’t blessed," said McCoy. "But I guess I've got seven or eight hundred that I've coached over 46 years. They know I care about them, too, and that's the most important thing."
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