RALEIGH – Saint Augustine’s University (SAU) alumnus Marlon Lee has a long string of accomplishments as a high school basketball coach.
He can add another honor to the list.
Lee has been selected to lead North Carolina’s top senior girls in the 2023 Carolinas Basketball Classic. The event pits the top senior boys and girls from North Carolina against their peers from South Carolina.
The head coaching selection is the latest highlight for Lee, who is in his 17th year as Head Varsity Girls Basketball Coach at Clayton High School. The Lady Comets have fared very well during his tenure, winning one sectional title, four regular-season conference crowns and two conference tournament championships.
His Clayton teams have won 273 games and reached the state playoffs 13 times.
This latest accolade ranks right up there with being selected Assistant Coach for the N.C. East-West Girls All-Star Game in 2015.
“It is truly an honor to be named Head Girls’ Coach in the 2023 N.C./S.C. All-Star Game,” said Lee, a four-time Coach of the Year winner. “I get to represent this great hoop state of N.C. along with the top student-athletes of N.C. Also, I get to represent my family, Johnston County Public Schools (Clayton High School) and my hometown of Smithfield, N.C.”
The honors have been rolling in for Lee this summer. In May, he was sworn in for his third term on the Smithfield Town Council.
Then in June, the 1996-97 SAU men’s basketball team, including Lee, was selected to be inducted into the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Lee was a key member on that squad which captured the school’s first CIAA Men’s Title.
“Most importantly, I am able to still be an ambassador for my alma mater, Saint Augustine’s University, where I am a 1999 graduate, 1997 CIAA Champion, 45 Under 45 honoree (second class) and soon to be Hall of Famer,” Lee said. “I want to carry on the coaching legacy of the late Coach Norvell Lee.”
(Saint Augustine’s University Press Release by Anthony Jeffries – reprinted with permission)
This man certainly excels at coaching the Johnston County all star teams he assembles every year at Clayton High! I ponder how successful he would be if he didn’t pull the the best from SSS, players from WJ, etc.
This man is a big role model in all of Johnston county Say what you want
I did. He does. Everyone knows.