All great things have to come to an end sometime. In the case of Bowie basketball, it was the departure of longtime head coach Celester Collier, who retired last summer after an illustrious 31-year career as head coach.

So who is the new top dog for Bowie basketball? Well, no other than former Bowie player and St. Edwards coach Trey Lindsey.

Lindsey and Collier have a long history together dating back way before Lindsey’s time as a coach.

“Coach Collier’s son Isaiah and I have been best friends since we were four. So, coach Collier has almost been like a second dad growing up,” Lindsey said.

Lindsey also takes a lot from Collier’s coaching as it helped him get to where he is today as a coach and person.

“He kind of helped mentor me through [coaching]. We would talk basketball, I’d come up here to Bowie and watch practices. And then it’s really just blossomed from there into more of a friendship,” Lindsey said.”  “So I talked to him once a week still.”

After hearing that Collier had retired Lindsey was shocked that he did finally retire but this wasn’t out of the blue, however.

“I was shocked when Coach [Collier] decided he was finally leaving. He had honestly been talking to me about doing it [retiring] for years,” Lindsey said. “He’s been saying it honestly, since about 2010.”

Lindsey wasn’t the only one surprised about Collier retiring as senior Lucas Bole was surprised about the decision. Bole, had coach Collier as his coach for all three years of high school and was able to connect with Collier more on a player -coach level.

“When I first heard coach Collier retired I was a little bit disappointed that I wouldn’t get to finish my high school career with him as my coach, but I was also excited for something new and someone younger to bring in new ideas,” Bole said.

Sophomore Brandon Chou was also surprised about the news of Collier retiring but thought it was on the horizon.

“I really experienced a lot of mixed emotions, I was, mainly surprised,” Chou said. “But I also saw it coming because he [Collier] also had a knee surgery that he just got so a lot of people saw it coming.”

The new coaching search was a question for many, a front-runner was longtime assistant coach Nate  Haynes.

“I had no idea who it [head coach] would be. I also thought it could have been  coach Haynes, but he also retired,” Chou said.

Lindsey, himself, was surprised when he was offered the job as he was a college coach at the time, but he said wanted the job to go to someone in the “Bowie family.”

“To be quite honest, I mean, there was one coaching job in the state that I would take and it was Bowie,” Lindsey said. “And that is because of my experience with Bowie, the love for the community, and obviously my relationship with Coach Collier. I wanted this job to go to a Bulldog. I didn’t want this to be somebody out of the Bulldog family.”

Lindsey also cited wanting to see his family more for the reason to come back to Bowie as the college coaching travel was a lot to handle.

“We have a four-month old baby, and honestly the college travel is a little crazy,” Lindsey said. “We have late nights and all of those things, but instead of being gone Wednesday to Sunday every week, I get to be home late a couple of times a week. So I was I just thought it was the right time for the family.”

Lindsey wasn’t afraid of the following up Collier either, even though expectations were high Lindsey believed he was up to the task as he had a lot of support around him from Bowie staff.

“There are such great people that were here when I was playing and going to school like coach Ables,” Lindsey said. “So I’ve got a ton of people that are in my corner, and people that are supporting so I just thought it was the right time.”

As a former college coach, Lindsey has been able to implement his coaching style to Bowie as players like Bole have been able to see a difference in the play.

“I’d say Lindsey has more fast-paced practices with a lot of scrimmaging and totally different offensive and defensive principles,” Bole said.

Lindsey isn’t just different in his coaching schemes from Collier.

“Lindsey cares about the simple stuff, but he also wouldn’t yell as much as coach Collier,” Chou said.

With a new coach, a culture shift usually happens but Lindsey doesn’t want this as the culture is already great.

“I’m in a great position because Bowie basketball has always been instilled with hard work,” Lindsey said. “It’s working together as a team. You know, we’re disciplined. So that [culture] wasn’t something that we were having to teach.”

Lindsey raves about his players as he believes in them as players and as people.

“I’m walking into a great situation with great kids,” Lindsey said. “And these guys have been awesome. They come in, they work hard every day.”

Even with high expectations Chou believes in his new coach fully.

“I think he’s going to exceed expectations,” Chou said. “I really think that our offense is going to be much better than what we ran last year. And I think Coach Lindsey is a very good coach.”