DALTON, Ga. — For former Northwest Whitfield High School basketball player Ryan Dyer, slow and steady is definitely winning the race.

Dyer always knew he wanted to be a coach, and the perks of the job are flooding his life eight years into leading the North Paulding boys basketball team in Dallas.

“I thought about it when I took this job, we didn’t even have basketballs,” Dyer said. “We knew it was going to be an uphill battle, but now it’s such a special thing we’ve got going on.”

This year is undoubtedly the best year Dyer has had at North Paulding, already winning more games than any of his previous years. The Wolfpack is sitting second in Region 3-7A, one of the toughest regions in the biggest classification in the state.

To reach these new heights, which also includes a No. 9 ranking in Class 7A, Dyer has taken his time. Though the North Paulding job is his first as a head coach, Dyer took the long way around, first as an assistant for Reinhardt University following his college graduation and spot on the Maryville University basketball team in St. Louis, Missouri. After four years at Reinhardt, Dyer took an assistant coaching job at Kennesaw Mountain, which plays in the same region as North Paulding. Four more years finally led him to a program of his own.

North Paulding, which was entering its fourth year of existence when Dyer took the job in 2011, had won no more than a handful of games when he arrived. Slowly but surely, every year has gotten a little bit better.

The school has grown, but so have Dyer’s accomplishments.

This season, North Paulding (16-4) has surpassed its wins from last year by four games with five regular-season games remaining. The Wolfpack was on the brink of surpassing its win total from the past two years combined Tuesday night against Marietta. North Paulding fell, 53-52, at the buzzer, keeping their region record the same (3-2) with half of its region games still to go.

Keeping him going and pushing him to continue the climb, Dyer said, is his family.

“There were definitely hard times where I almost took other jobs,” Dyer said. “For some reason we stayed. God has blessed us with the community. When you have kids that feel like they are letting your family down every time they lose, that’s when you know you have something special.”

Dyer’s children, Ava Bray, a third-grader, and Bryce, who is now in pre-K, are a common sight around the program. His wife, Candice, does her fair share of supporting, too.

“They believe in me so much,” Dyer said. “Different coaches tell me all the time that they don’t have what I have with my family support and everything. They want it just as bad as I do.”

Dyer also credits the way he runs basketball at North Paulding to the success. The team’s motto is “embrace the pace,” noting his players have learned to adjust to the high athleticism they face in the teams near Atlanta.

“We want teams to feel like they are going to the dentist,” he said. “It’s just a different style. It’s very methodical which works because our kids are very, very smart. I wouldn’t say it’s my style specifically, but it’s where I’m at right now and it’s working.”

Dyer looks back on his time at Northwest Whitfield as something that directly affected his adulthood.

Those who remember him as a 2002 Northwest Whitfield graduate agree.

“I think you learn where you are,” Britt Adams, Northwest Whitfield’s principal said. “As you learn you might have to do multiple things that maybe at a bigger place are more specialized. I think that helps you as a coach because there are so many little things that add to big things.”

Adams, who was an assistant football and girls basketball coach at Northwest Whitfield during the time, said he’s not surprised Dyer’s hard work is paying off.

“It looks like he’s doing a great job, I’m sure he’s learned from where he was,” he said. “At the end, you have to be you and blend them into a vision of how you want a team to look, but he was wired the right way.”

Dyer’s brother, Kip, joins him in Dallas as an assistant coach. His brother and his wife, both Northwest Whitfield graduates as well, have been a part of helping Dyer launch his favorite thing about coach at North Paulding — a youth basketball league.

“Dalton is still my heart, and almost every day I get a text from someone in Dalton,” he said. “I was really trying to bring that to North Paulding. We went from about 200 kids to now more than 650, to the point where we are pushing kids away. We were going to do it no matter what, but it’s just exploded. I love seeing those kids, even my kids play in the league.”

All in all, life is good for Dyer. He’s beginning to appreciate all the work that has led him to the top of the mountain. This year, Dyer also took on responsibilities as assistant athletic director at North Paulding.

“It’s really busy, but really good,” he said. “You get the best of both worlds. Looking back, I wish I would have enjoyed all of this more, but I’m doing a better job of that. I’m still just as competitive, but I’m learning it’s really about shaping boys into men.”

And while Dyer said North Paulding has been a perfect fit for his family, that doesn’t mean he is locked in for life.

“Honestly we still love Dalton, you never know what could happen,” he said.