Ed McLean was an institution at Broughton High in 1982. McLean was the boys basketball coach and athletic director, but he was more than that.

McLean had been the coach since 1965 when Pete Maravich amazed fans and his teammates. During McLean's tenure he built a national reputation as a high school basketball coach who was caring and nurturing.

When McLean resigned to take a part-time coaching job at N.C. State -- later playing an integral role in the Wolfpack's 1983 NCAA championship -- it seemed impossible that the school would find someone of the same quality.

But Broughton did.

Marshall Hamilton came from Southern Wayne High, where his team had won the 1980 state 4-A title, and quickly established his credentials as a coach and as a builder of men.

He was as good with the Xs and Os as any high school coach in the country. He became nationally known and eventually served on the national high school basketball rules committee. He coached in the U.S. Olympic Festival and was an assistant coach for the U.S. Junior National team.

Hamilton was fiercely competitive, but at times would throw back his head and laugh so fully that others laugh at his laugh.

He was a man of principle.

He once devised a special offense to use in the conference finals, which he never used.

The strategy was set up to take advantage of one player's special talents, but Hamilton dropped him from the team the night before the finals. The player had been disrespectful.

"If I hadn't, I couldn't have shown my face at school tomorrow," he explained.

Another year, Hamilton did not start his best player because he had become academically ineligible the year before. Hamilton got the player into each game quickly though and the team reached the state finals.

Every year in the preseason, Hamilton would tell his team that he was a good coach and if they were good players, they would have a good team.

"I've learned I'm a lot better coach the better my players are," he said.

The biggest reason Hamilton left Broughton in 1993 was for a chance to do something new, establish a foundation for others to build on.

He was the AD at Broughton, but its athletic tradition was built.

At Leesville, he helped Principal Richard Murphy select the first coaching staff and he brought in people who were good coaches -- great coaches if they had great players -- but also coaches who would be role models.

In 1996, three years after the school opened, the school won the 4-A Wachovia Cup, symbolic of overall athletic excellence.

Hamilton had been a basketball coach, but he loved football. He had been an assistant football coach at Southern Wayne and the game was dear to him.

He said the goal was for Leesville Road to contend for state titles in every sport -- and in the school's 14-year history it has.

Hamilton is very sick now with cancer and retired in June. When asked his retirement plans, he said, "Fight cancer for as long as I can."

Hospice is working with him and his family now.

He has meant much to so many.

The Leesville Road football team that plays in the state 4-AA semifinals on Friday night is a part of his legacy. Everything about Leesville athletics is a part of his legacy.

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