Former UF star Teddy Dupay in town as youth coach

Teddy Dupay was back on a basketball court Saturday in Fort Myers, but for once, there was zero chance that Florida’s all-time high school scoring champion would be launching any deep 3-pointers.

After all, a coach can do very little except teach and fret. The 34-year-old is doing plenty of both this weekend.

Dupay — a McDonald’s All-American who scored 3,744 points at Mariner from 1994-98 and was the University of Florida’s point guard in the 2000 NCAA title game — entered his Skills Center Elite (Tampa) seventh-graders in the USSSA State Championships, a 161-team free-for-all hosted by High Hoops and scattered over 21 courts at 15 Lee County facilities.

The finals are today at five locations, including grades 6-8 at the Estero Recreation Center beginning at 4 p.m.

Dupay’s team lost 54-45 to the RCC/AMN Wolves (Lake City) early Saturday morning, but won its pool after walloping the Punta Gorda-based Charlotte Swish 55-28 after opening with a 13-0 run.

He played all 11 players before halftime. “Always. If I had 12, then I’d play 12,” he said.

They responded by sprinting to timeout huddles and running fast breaks with a vengeance. One moment, David Cexil (barely 5-foot-1) was diving for a loose ball, a hustle play that led to a layup and a 22-9 lead. The next, Cameron Rosier was draining an effortless 3 — just like his 5-10 coach used to do.

“We’re teaching high, high level stuff that I didn’t learn until I went to Florida or played professionally,” Dupay said. “Mismatches, positioning, spacing. We want to push the pace, but really that’s to get our kids in the correct spacing.

“I break it way down to probably the most simplified version, but we’re doing things that some players learn down the road and some never do.”

The opposing coach noticed one missing ingredient.

“His team will never be as good as that Mariner team was, because they don’t have him,” said Mike Williams, Charlotte High’s JV coach.

“He’s doing a great job. He plays a lot of guys, they defend and they share the basketball. I think he’s going to be a pretty good coach, but he was a phenomenal player.”

Cexil already knows the secret for winning favor with “Coach Dupay.”

“Sometimes, what he’s teaching us is hard to understand, sometimes it’s very simple. But if you give your hardest effort, he’ll accept that.”