Legion Collegiate Hires New Boys And Girls Basketball Coaches

Rock Hill, SC – Legion Collegiate Academy Director of Athletics Rich Posipanko didn’t have to go very far to find the Lancers’
new basketball coaches. Both are very familiar with the area and have enjoyed coaching success in the past.
Johnathan Edwards was selected to lead the Lancers’ girls program and Ricardo Priester will lead the boys program.
“We found two high character individuals with the utmost integrity to lead our boys’ and girls’ basketball programs here at
Legion Collegiate Academy,” Posipanko said. “Both bring a high level of successful playing and head coaching experience to
LCA. They are tough coaches, with outstanding work ethic, but with compassion.
“They will be demanding on the court and in the classroom. Each has a strong allegiance to the student-athlete concept,
which is a high priority. Moving forward, we expect high level athletes and good students in our basketball programs.”
Edwards will be a coach the Legion girls can look up to. He arrived in the Charlotte metropolitan area in 2018 to serve as
Regional Director for Yes I Can Basketball. In addition to running programs in Fort Mill and Rock Hill, as well as serving as a
recruiter for Next College Student Athletes out of Chicago, Edwards got the itch to return to coaching.
A veteran of six seasons as an assistant men’s basketball coach at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas – where he also played
from 2009-10 – Edwards took over as the boys’ varsity coach at Walnut Grove Christian School in Fort Mill last year. He led
the Warriors to a 16-6 record, but the opportunity to coach the Legion girls was too tempting to pass up.
“I heard nothing but good things about Legion and the importance of both athletics and academics for the students,” Edwards
said. “To me, sports are all about helping young people achieve their goals because it teaches so many lessons in life. We are
going to have success on the court, win games and help kids earn their way to the next level. But it is just as important to me
that we help mentor those kids who will never play in college, so they have the skills big companies are looking for.”
A veteran high school coach, Priester spent 14 seasons at Lancaster High, earning Coach of the Year honors three times.
During those 14 seasons he had 16 students earn athletic scholarships but, more importantly, 60 of the 62 students who
played for him as a senior went on to college. Since retiring from coaching following the 2019 season, Priester has continued
to serve the students at Lancaster as a teacher for freshmen students.
Prior to his tenure at Lancaster, Priester served as head basketball coach at the school where he was a standout player,
Camden Military Academy, from 2000-03, getting his start at just 24 years of age. He had three consecutive winning seasons
and had 15 players earn athletic scholarships, including one McDonald’s All-American.
“Out of the many qualified candidates who applied and were looked at, Coach Edwards and Coach Priester were the most
impressive through the interview process and references we spoke with,” Posipanko said. “From the beginning, we were not
going to let time dictate the selection process. However, both coaches rose to the top and the process turned out much
shorter than expected.”
Priester had been contented away from coaching because he has continued impacting the lives of students as a teacher. He
passed on multiple opportunities to return to coaching, but the situation at Legion, he said, is different.
“I received a call from a friend at Legion, and that is the only reason I listened,” Priester said. “He was a referee for many of
my games when I played at Wingate and I have a lot of respect for him. He brought me in to meet with Dr. Julie Marshall and
Coach Posipanko and they both know coach Jeff Reynolds, who was my coach in college and now serves as special assistant
to coach Brad Brownell at Clemson.
“Once I met with them and heard the vision for the school, especially the academic piece, I got excited. Basketball is
basketball, but the academics at this school are second to none. There is an old saying about not every student-athlete can
go pro in sports, but they will go pro in something. This school is designed to get these kids ready to have productive careers
in whatever they choose to do and thrive in their communities.”
As a player, Priester earned All-State honors in both North and South Carolina while at Camden Military. He was twice
selected as the Conference Player of the Year, helping him to earn a scholarship to Wingate, where he played for four years,
serving as team captain during his junior and senior seasons.
After receiving his bachelor’s degree in human services, Priester took his shot at playing professional basketball. He spent
time in the 1998-99 season with both the Portland Trailblazers and Charlotte Hornets. He played or the Union County Slamm
in the XBA in 2002, earning Rookie of the Year honors, and then went to Germany and Poland to play during the 2022-23
season.
“I was blessed to have a great community around me when I was a kid,” Priester said. “It takes a village to raise a child, well I
was blessed to have that village with my parents and grandmother. They instilled in me that hard work, faith and values
were important. Going to Camden took that to another level. Colonel Eric Boland was my coach and gave me my first coaching
opportunity at Camden. I have been blessed to stand on the shoulders of some great people throughout my life.”
As a coach, Priester has mentored three players who went on to play professionally. The first was Larry Blair, who became
the second all-time scorer at Camden Military Academy – behind only Priester – before going on to become at All-Conference
performer at Liberty, which he is also second all-time in scoring. He went on to play internationally in Finland, France and the
Republic of Georgia and he is now the head coach at Bradford Prep in Charlotte.
He also coached Sindarius Thornwell at Lancaster before he went on to lead South Carolina to a Final Four appearance in
2017 after being names the SEC Player of the Year. He has played for the LA Clippers, New Orleans Pelicans and Orlando
Magic in the NBA and most recently played in Finland.
Edwards is a native of Queens, NY, and was a two-year team captain at Living Faith Christian Academy in high school. As a 6-
8 forward, he left the Big Apple for east Texas to play at Tyler Junior College for coach Mike Marquis, an NJCAA Hall of Fame
coach. He helped the Apache to a 42-17 record over two seasons, earning All-Region honors as well as a scholarship to
Radford University.
“Growing up in New York the athletic culture was very competitive,” Edwards said. “My dad is from Jamaica and was a cricket
player and a soccer player and my mom played volleyball and was on the Panamanian National team. Through my years as
an adolescent and teenager I had to work extremely hard on the basketball court as well as the classroom to standout. My
parents made sure they taught me the importance of hard work and staying committed to whatever goals I set for myself.”
Edwards was a standout player himself. In his two seasons at Radford, starting 41 of 49 games in which he played. He served
as a captain his senior year and earned a bachelor’s degree in media studies in 2012. After graduation he immediately started
his coaching career, returning to Texas to work as an assistant coach for Marquis.
At Tyler, he handled recruiting, managed the program’s budget, helped students with their class schedules, managed team
travel and meals, edited game film and organized practices. During three of his five seasons in the program the Apache were
ranked in the top 25 in the nation and twice they advanced to the NJCAA national tournament. He coached more than 30
players who went on to earn NCAA Division I scholarships while also serving as an adjunct professor.
He left the coaching ranks in 2018 to work as a recruiter for Next College Student Athletes in Chicago, managing the recruiting
process for thousands of student-athletes globally. He evaluated video for high school players, helped develop a recruiting
game plan, and then promoted players to coaches at the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA levels.
Edwards also arrived in Charlotte in 2018 to work with Yes I Can Basketball which was named by Charlotte Magazine as the
best youth basketball program in the area. The organization runs after school programs as well as year-round camps,
training and leagues for boys and girls.
“In my experience as a college coach, I was able to see things from a whole other perspective,” Edwards said. “I realized how
much value I was able to bring to student athletes and families lives by assisting them in avoiding some of the mistakes I
made along my playing journey. The great thing about sports is it is a fantastic way for someone to build character. It can be
tool used to create many doors for yourself if applied with the correct understanding.
Edwards is no stranger to girls’ basketball, having grown up with two younger sisters, including one who played college
basketball at Penn State, earning All-Big Ten honors as a senior and Academic All-Big Ten honors three times. She went on to
play professionally all over Europe.