W. Alamance basketball coach steps down, stays AD

Carter Gerlach is stepping down after his second stint as boys’ basketball coach at Western Alamance.

“I’m going to let go,” Gerlach said. “I wasn’t trying to make a big to-do about it. … I think it’s best for me and my family. That’s got to be No. 1.”

The Warriors completed a 6-17 season last month.

Gerlach, who turns 40 next week, said he intends to remain at the school as athletics director. He said the next basketball coach might be a new hire at the school based on teaching positions that become vacant for the 2008-09 school year.

Gerlach spent nine total years as Western Alamance’s boys’ basketball coach. He said he at-tempted to run the program the right way, using available resources.

His latest four-year stint ends with two seven-win seasons as the best marks — 7-13, 7-15, 5-18 (prior to this season) — for a 25-63 overall record.

In five seasons ending in 2002 under Gerlach, the Warriors were a combined 78-49.

So his cumulative nine-year mark at Western Alamance, which is his alma mater, stands at 103-112.

He also spent five seasons as girls’ basketball coach at Southern Alamance. Prior to that, he was a junior varsity coach at Western Alamance and assisted Frank Haith, now with the Uni-versity of Miami, at Western Alamance Middle School.