Except for four years of college at Georgia Southern, Charles “Chunk” Reid has lived in Vidalia, Georgia. In high school, he played football and a little junior varsity basketball, went off to college and returned in 1968 as an assistant football and baseball coach at Vidalia High School. Then in 1970, something happened that would define Chunk’s life. He became the girl’s basketball coach at Vidalia High School. The rest as they say is history. In 46 seasons on the Lady Indians bench, Chunk has won an incredible 852 games. He is closing in on the all time record in Georgia, which is 862 wins by Alvin Copeland at Northeast Macon High School. Chunk should pass that mark next year. Let’s put things in an historical perspective. When Chunk starting coaching the Lady Indians in 1970, Richard Nixon was in the White House, gas was 13 cents a gallon, the first Earth Day was held, Apollo 13 headed for the moon and somehow came back safely, the New York Knicks won their first NBA Title, Thor Heyerdal was sailing the RA II, the comic strip ‘Doonesbury” debuted as did a little sports show called Monday Night Football on ABC. And Chunk Reid was a rookie head coach for the Vidalia High School girl’s basketball team. “It is amazing, forty- six years went by in a hurry” says Chunk. Back then girls basketball was a “rover” game with 3 girls staying on each end of the court and one player allowed to “rover” back and fourth. The game has come a long way since then. In the beginning, Chunk says he might have been a little too hard on his players. He has lightened up a little over the years, but still demands a dedication to excellence. He does admit though that players today are a bit different with their “ facebook, media, and texts” Chunk’s best team was the 2010 bunch who posted an amazing 31-1 record, losing to Buford in the state championship game. Over the years his teams have won an average of 18.7 games. He has coached 23 teams to 20 plus win seasons and has been to the state tournament 31 times. ( Chunk reminds me that for many of those years only two teams per region qualified before the expansion to 4 playoff teams per region.) Chunk has coached a lot of talented players and he really didn’t want to single any out for fear of leaving someone off the list. I think it is safe to say that Vidalia High School’s all time leading scorer Janae Stokes is on that list with 2,261 points and an average of 21.3 points over the 106 varsity games she played. But it’s the teams Chunk remembers best. A group of girls coming together and playing good team basketball. This year’s team is another typical Chunk Reid coached bunch, with a 17-4 record and getting ready to make another playoff run. This year’s Lady Indians have no seniors on the team, starting one freshman and four juniors. So things look good for the years to come. Having coached for 46 years at one place, there have been many times when Chunk has coached the daughters of players that he coached decades earlier. It is happening again this year as he coaches Maci Johnson, whose mom, Marcy was a talented player. Chunk calls it “rewarding” when he coaches a second generation of Lady Indians. Chunk says his nickname was pinned on him by a cousin because the cousin thought he was a “chunky baby” and that name just stuck. Just like Chunk has stuck around Vidalia for all of his 72 years. He says he has had several other job offers and other coaching opportunities over the years but that he never really considered leaving his roots. “Vidalia is home and always will be”. And most likely sometime next season, Chunk Reid will win his record setting 863rd girls high school basketball game. It will be an historic occasion. A milestone reached occasion. And it will be very well deserved occasion for a long time favored son of Vidalia.