Marcel Williams

Marcel Williams

 Photo: Submitted

Marcel Williams is accustomed to winning, but he faces a difficult rebuilding job in his new role as Centennial’s girls basketball coach.

The Lady Cougars went 4-23 last year and they haven’t enjoyed a winning season since 2017.

“I think this will probably be a good test for myself and my staff,” Williams said. “You’ve got to have energy and you’ve got to want to do it.”

Williams said it will take an “all-out effort” to rebuild after losing seven seniors from last year’s team that finished in last place at 1-13 in the seven-team District 10-4A.

“It doesn’t matter if you’re the No. 1 team or the bottom team, seven seniors is a lot to overcome,” Williams said. “It’s going to be a challenge, but I’m accepting it.”

Centennial has suffered seven straight losing seasons, going 35-139 along the way.

Williams replaces Bruce Hamilton, who resigned last week after four seasons to become Centennial’s softball coach.

“I feel like there’s a lot of potential because when I first got into the district, they went to substate,” Williams said of the 2017 team that finished 19-10 after a 56-54 loss to Clarksville in a sectional. “Every school has a down year or maybe a down couple of years. Theirs has lasted a little longer and I think if somebody gets in there and takes their time and rebuilds it, they can definitely come back.”

Williams, 35, went 72-23 at Brentwood, averaging 24 wins during the past three seasons.

The Lady Bruins were 102-49 during his five years as an assistant.

“It was a family situation that kind of got resolved as the days went on,” Williams said of his resignation from Brentwood. “I put my notice in early February. I wanted to give them the opportunity to find somebody, and then I would figure out what I wanted to do with myself in the family aspect.”

Brentwood went 7-20 during his first year as an assistant in 2017 before improving to 23-10 with a Class AAA sectional appearance the next season.

“I like to rebuild,” Williams said. “I understand the process, and I talked to some other coaches that were in the same kind of predicament and they kind of loved the challenge of being in dogfights, trying to win games, and they felt like it made them better coaches.”

Brentwood made 305 3-pointers during his second year as head coach in 2023, second-best in state history. The Lady Bruins made 279 last season.

“I kind of got labeled as a 3-point shooting coach, but it’s just the skill set that I had and I kind of looked at the talent and said, ‘This is what we’re good at,’ ” Williams said. “My background is defense. I would say my coaching style is adapt to the talent that we have, but I’m always going to lean on girls that play defense.”

Williams played forward at Austin Peay from 2007-11.

When he was redshirted as a freshman in 2007, APSU lost to Texas 74-54 in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Rick Barnes, who coaches Tennessee now, coached Texas back then.

“I have watched his teams perform at a high level over the last several years, and he brings a strong basketball pedigree as a coach and a former player at Austin Peay State University,” Centennial assistant principal Greg Glass said of Williams, who led Brentwood to a 24-6 record and a Region 5-4A quarterfinal appearance last season.