CHOCOWINITY — Southside athletic director and boys’ basketball coach Sean White remembers a past conference tournament championship game that saw Southside’s girls take on Riverside. Each team played for a state championship in back-to-back years.

White remembers one of the Lady Seahawks being on the receiving end of plenty of physical play. Head coach Bill Lake didn’t take too kindly to it.

“He actually went out on the floor. The maddest I’ve ever seen the man,” White recalled. “He went to one of the officials arguing the call. … Basically, complaining about the call and that she had been beat up the whole game and hadn’t got a call herself.”

It was a bit out of character for a man White described as a “gentle giant.” The moment was also a microcosm of not only Lake’s passion for the game of basketball, but also the love he had for his players.

“When he was at school, he was the same way in the classroom as he was on the basketball court,” White said. “He always thought a lot about his kids. He always did what he thought was best for them, and tried to help them in any way he could.”

Lake passed away on Monday. Even though he had retired as the Lady Seahawks’ bench boss, he was still a loved member of the Southside athletic community, his church and Beaufort County.

In short, the area lost a treasure — its “gentle giant” — this past week.

Lake was competing for titles on the court long before coming to Chocowinity and coaching the Lady Seahawks to a state-championship game. He was a freshman backup center on the 1974 North Carolina State basketball team that beat fifth-ranked Maryland, 103-100 in overtime, in the ACC Championship game en route to the Wolfpack’s first national championship.

That was his only year at N.C. State. Lake transferred to Miami University of Ohio to finish out his college career and earn his accounting degree. His savvy on the court translated perfectly to coaching, and his accomplishments in the classroom helped him become a valued teacher.

“He had a wealth of knowledge,” White said. “I could sit there and talk to him and he’d tell me stories about his playing days and different things like that. I learned a lot from him.”

Lake, who was from Indiana, moved to Chocowinity in 2004. In 2005, he began teaching business and coaching girls’ basketball at Northside. He shifted over to be with the Lady Seahawks in 2006.

“I’ve always said that great coaches are great teachers,” Rick Anderson said. Anderson was the principal at Southside during part of Lake’s tenure there. “That’s what you’re doing. When you’re on the basketball court, you’re teaching. Bill was a great teacher, as well. He was very thorough, very detailed and very organized.”

Anderson not only saw what Lake was able to do with the girls’ basketball program, but also got a first-hand look at what he could accomplish in the classroom.

One thing that Anderson will always remember about Lake is how he always had to look around Lake to see the pastor during church. Their families attended the same church, and the Andersons would always sit behind the Lakes. At 6-foot-11, Lake was hard to see around, and he passed his height genes on to his children.

“My boys have grown up always trying to look around the Lakes. … That’s just a funny thing that we’ve always joked about,” Anderson said. “He was a wonderful person and the world doesn’t have enough people like Bill Lake.”

Lake touched the lives of so many with his coaching, teaching, church involvement and more. He will be dearly missed.