Returning to Randleman’s bench brings excitement, challenges for girls’ coach

Coach Brandon Varner provides instruction to the Randleman girls’ basketball team during a game earlier this season. (PJ Ward-Brown / Randolph Record)

RANDLEMAN — Brandon Varner had been away from coaching the Randleman girls’ basketball team for two years when he returned to the position for this season.

Even as one of the most successful girls’ coach in the area across the past decade, when the season began with a November game at Providence Grove, he had those feelings of anxiety again.

“I was nervous wreck,” he said after coaching the Tigers to a victory. “I felt I was over there seven hours (in front of the bench).”

Across the next couple of months, there have been ups and downs for Randleman as the Tigers try to return to the high level of success they enjoyed during Varner’s first go-around as coach. They won more than 20 games in three of his last four seasons – and the other was the pandemic-adjusted season in 2021.

Randleman had two different coaches during the two seasons after Varner stepped away. The players were seeking continuity.

“I always wished that he would come back,” senior guard Bella Byman said. “It will make us better.”

Varner sensed there would be a transitional period. He had four or five players reaching 1,000-point milestones during his previous stint, so it was going to take time to recalibrate.

“We’re going to have to get a lot better fast,” Varner said in assessing the team at the beginning of the season. “It’s a process and that process started back in March and it took a lot to get here.”

So that made returning to the bench both rewarding.

“It was good to be back. I was excited. I was excited for the girls,” he said. “You practice, practice, practice and you want to get out there and see what we’ve got.”

Byman and senior guard Kadie Green are the only current Randleman players who were with the Tigers under Varner previously.

While it might have seemed a bit different for Varner as he adjusted to a new cast of personnel, there was a comfortable element for Byman and Green.

“It keeps us to the same standards, which is good,” Byman said. “It’s nothing new for me and Kadie.”

Randleman went 103-20 in Varner’s first five seasons, with half of the defeats coming in the first year. The Tigers were 56-4 in regular-season conference play during that time.

Varner is a physical education teacher at Randleman Middle School, so he’s familiar with his players from another setting. They’ve seen him in a different capacity as well

“The guy you got as the middle school PE teacher is not the same guy you get as a coach,” he said.

Fast forward a couple of months and the Tigers entered this week with an 11-6 record. So there have been achievements but there’s more to do.

“We can’t sustain those things consistent enough to be what we can be,” Varner said.