Nearly 17 years have passed since Charles Assey served as a head coach.

A successful financial planner for MassMutual since 1999, the former 8-time champion in baseball and football has been content assisting his son Charles Jr. both at White Knoll and Cardinal Newman.

After watching the Cardinals win the SCISA Class 3A title, Assey was hit with the “head coaching bug”.

On Tuesday, Gray Collegiate Academy introduced Assey as its new head baseball coach. He takes over a program that advanced to the Class 2A District III final this past season under Gene Frye.

“I’ve spent the last five years helping Charles with his program at White Knoll and Cardinal Newman now,” the senior Assey said. “I’ve just have always wanted to be a head coach again and I’ve been in the private sector with MassMutual and doing my financial planning business, so I enjoyed that.

“But, I just want to give it one more shot. I feel like I’ve got 10 more years in me and I’ve got my health and I still have not lost that competitive edge and just want to get back to being a head coach.”

Assey’s coaching success began in the SCISA ranks where he led Orangeburg Prep to three titles in both baseball and football. He also coached Mims Academy to a state title in baseball before going to Brookland-Cayce where he led the Bearcats to the 1998 Class 3A title.

Working with his son has not only allowed Assey to remain close to the game, but also relate to the present day players. His “old school” approach of stressing respect, fundamentals and hard work had a receptive audience among the returning players in attendance.

“I guess my former players have tutored me in that type of scenario,” he said. “Just being around the younger coaches and having success at White Knoll and Cardinal Newman like they had and being an assistant coach instead of a head coach and I see basically how you have to handle kids nowadays as opposed to when we were doing it in the 1990s.”

Next season, Gray Collegiate will compete in a revamped Region 3-2A which loses Fox Creek and Saluda and adds Calhoun County with Eau Claire, C.A. Johnson and Columbia.

“Hopefully, we’ll have some success there and get a little further than they did this past year in the playoffs,” Assey said.