NC State head coach Kevin Keatts used to wash the jerseys of the prep school team he coached.

Now Keatts is cleaning up in March Madness after leading the Wolfpack to the Final Four for the first time since 1983.

Kevin Keatts got his coaching break at Hargrave Military AcademyCredit: Getty

Keatts has now led NC State into the Final FourCredit: Getty

Keatts celebrates the Wolfpack’s victory over Duke in the Elite Eight on SundayCredit: Getty

NC State are in the Final Four for the first time since 1983Credit: Getty
NC State continued their improbable NCAA basketball tournament run with a scrappy 76-64 victory over Duke on Sunday night.

It marked another stellar moment in the amazing basketball career of Keatts, who was a star high school quarterback and began his coaching stint at the lowly Hargrave Military Academy prep school.

Keatts was the head coach at Hargrave from 1999-2001 and then 2003-11 after previously serving as an assistant.

In 11 years at the school, he amassed 282 wins against just 17 losses and won two championships.

But Keatts did much more than just coach the Virginia-based team.

“I drove the bus at Hargrave. I pumped the gas,” he recently recalled.

“I swept the floor. I washed the clothes. I did this, the good Lord, put me in this spot, so I’m glad to be here.”

Keatts believes the years he spent at the grassroots level prepared him for his rise up the college ranks, where he served as an assistant to Rick Pitino at Louisville before moving to UNC Wilmington and then NC State in 2017.

“During that time, it wasn’t a national media thing,” he added.

“I could call timeouts. I could draw up plays. I could make practice plans.

“If I made a mistake, nobody cared. It just wasn’t – but I could lean on that because it helped me get better.”

NC State almost missed out on the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in five years.
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But Keatts is now the first NC State coach to lead the Wolfpack to the Final Four since Jim Valavano in 1983.

He hopes his improbable journey serves as an inspiration to other college basketball coaches.

“I hope that I’m inspiring a lot of people because you don’t have to be just a Power Five player to be a Power Five head coach,” he said.

“There’s other ways to get there. You look across the country – some of the best coaches in the world have come from the same path that I’ve traveled.”