With his wife Adrienne and son KJ alongside, new Thomasville High School boys basketball coach Kiel Angry discusses his promotion to the top spot.

THOMASVILLE — Having sat next to Ben Tillman for more than a decade, Kiel Angry absorbed plenty from the now-retired Thomasville Bulldogs boys basketball coach.

Now, it’s Angry’s chair to run the THS hoops program. 

Angry was introduced formally as the next boys basketball coach Monday morning at the school.

“It’s very exciting,” he said. “I couldn’t ask for a better place to be. It’s all about the diamond T. The kids will believe in the diamond T.”

Angry has been in the school system since 2006 — his wife Adrienne is the current Thomasville City Schools teacher of the year — and he was head coach at MacIntyre Park Middle School.

“I only lost three games,” he said of his MPMS tenure.

Thomasville won the Region 1-AA title last year, in its final year of Class AA competition. The Bulldogs are going to Class AAA this year.

Angry said his program will be ready for step up in class. 

“I look at it as another stepping stone this program is going to have to go through,” he said. “I’m ready for it. And you will know that you are playing Thomasville.”

Angry has been assistant for more than a dozen years with Tillman, so he and the players don’t need any introductions.

‘It’s nothing new for me,” he said. “I think it’s the same shoes I’ve been sitting in next to Coach Tillman for 13 years. That’s the greatest thing about it. These kids know what I’m about. Being around them so long, they know what Coach Angry is about and I’m going to bring the passion.” 

Angry was a standout football player at Lee County High School. He also was athletic director at MPMS.  

Angry also thanked the city schools board members and Superintendent Dr. Raymond Bryant Jr. for giving him the opportunity. 

Angry said he is big on discipline and on doing the little things right, much as Coach Tillman was.

“You can’t overlook what Coach Tillman built here,” he said. “But I’m going to put my stamp on it.”