LUMBERTON — In his first season at the helm of the Lumberton boys basketball program, Bryant Edwards coached the program to accomplishments that the Pirates had never accomplished on the boys side.

Because of the unprecedented success during year one in Lumberton that included being awarded a co-state championship, Edwards was voted the Male Coach of the Year in the state by HighSchoolOT and was honored during Wednesday night’s HighSchoolOT Honors.

“This award is a reflection of how great of a staff and players I had to work with,” Edwards said. “Without them none of the accomplishments would have been possible.”

Edwards was finalist for the award along with Robeson County native George Stackhouse who coaches Westover’s basketball team, Southern Nash football coach Brian Foster, Vance football coach Glennwood Ferebee and Wake Forest soccer coach Rick Pittarelli.

The Lumberton coach was also named Robeson County Coach of the Year.

The accomplishments of this year’s team came with a relatively inexperienced roster with three returners that played varsity basketball at Lumberton last season.

“We went through a lot,” Edwards told HighSchoolOT. “There was a coaching change at Lumberton, a few transfers and one of the starters from last year coming back tore his ACL during football. He was out for the year so really we only had two returning players that played last year at Lumberton on the varsity level.”

One of the returners was senior Jordan McNeill, who on top of helping lead the Pirates to their first state title game berth and later a co-state championship, broke the school’s scoring record and surpassed 2,000 career points during his career this past season.

“He’s a discipline coach,” McNeill told HighSchoolOT. “He’s different than anyone else because he makes you pay your price. He brings a lot of excitement and happiness from the community, from Lumberton. He’s just a hard coach.”

This year’s Lumberton squad finished 26-5, and won the final game of the season on March 7 in 66-47 win over Pinecrest at Fayetteville State University in the 4A East Regional final. The win avenged two losses in the regular season to Pinecrest.

“This group right here is super special,” Edwards told HighSchoolOT. “They brought a whole community together that was in a tough time with the hurricanes and everything that went on. The town of Lumberton was literally underwater and they went through so much. For me to come in, my first year, everybody was accepting of me. The coaching staff that we put together, administration did anything and everything that I needed. These guys will definitely play a special part to me, hopefully forever, but definitely the first state championship team in Lumberton history. They definitely are going to hold their mark at Lumberton High School as well.”