Former South Carolina basketball star joins Midlands coaching staff

On Monday morning, Gray Collegiate Academy head coach Dion Bethea announced officially that former South Carolina basketball star Zam Fredrick II would be joining his coaching staff as an assistant coach. Bethea previously mentioned he would hire Fredrick in March, but the move is now official.

Fredrick was the state’s all-time leading high school scorer after a stellar four-year high school career at Calhoun County. Brandon Wallace, Fredrick’s former teammate at South Carolina, is the head girls’ basketball coach at Gray.

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Fredrick spent three years with Carolina, one while sitting out as a transfer redshirt. During his two years on the court, he averaged just over 15 points per game as part of a dynamic backcourt in which he played alongside Devan Downey. Fredrick played under head coaches Dave Odom and Darrin Horn. In his senior year, the Gamecocks won 21 games and earned an NIT bid. Before transferring to USC, Fredrick played two seasons at Georgia Tech.

Arguably his biggest singular moment as a Gamecock, Fredrick scored a buzzer-beating game-winner against the Florida Gators in the 2008-2009 season. With Florida ahead 69-68 with 3.3 seconds remaining, big man Mike Holmes rebounded a Chandler Parsons missed free throw and immediately fired a baseball-style pass beyond halfcourt where Fredrick had leaked. The 6-1 guard caught the pumpkin in stride, dribbled once, and laid it in before the buzzer for the win.

Following his Gamecock career, Fredrick played several years as a professional overseas.

Fredrick’s father, also named Zam Fredrick, was an All-American for the Gamecocks in the early 1980s. He later won 10 state championships at Calhoun County, including three with his son as his best player.

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