During his college years at N.C. State, Kenny Inge was known for his low-post tenacity night-in and night-out. It's what helped him remain a starter for 111 games in his four-year career.

Now, after stops in the CBA, The Citadel and a few assistant jobs in South Carolina, Inge is back in Wake County, this time as Cary Academy's head coach.

After averaging less than nine wins over the past two seasons, the Chargers are off to a 5-1 start under Inge, and opened the season with a five-game winning streak.

The most epic of these games was the season opener against St. David's.

Cary Academy cut a 13-point lead to two by halftime only to watch St. David's increase it back to 18 at the end of the third quarter. But Inge's Chargers rallied yet again, and Jimmy Joyner sank a 16-footer at the horn to win 73-72 and give their coach his first career victory.

As a player who had a reputation of giving full effort, Inge found it a pivotal moment for the season, and an opportunity to establish the kind of team and program he wants to build.

"We're going to be the team that's not going to give up," Inge said."We may not have the most talented players, but when you come to play Cary, we're giving you 110 percent every night on the court. So you're going to bring your 'A' game, or if you're expecting to come here and think it's a gimme, it's not going to happen."

Inge got the job on Aug. 6th, just a few short months before the season began. Inge isn't a faculty member on campus, and that coupled with being a late hire put him behind in his building relationships with his players. At first, Charger players were only seeing the competitive side of their coach.

"As soon as they see me I'm on the court and it's all business with no time to really joke around. I think now that we're a little bit deeper in the guys are starting to see I'm not as crazy as I seem on the court and I can relate to them," Inge said.

"We didn't have practice one day because we went bowling. We had a week before the game so we went and did something fun so they can see me on the other side not just 'All right you're not doing this you've got to run.'"

Inge ranks seventh in career rebounding for the Wolfpack and tenth in blocks. However, his Chargers are a guard-dominated team.

"In order for us to be good we've got to have someone who's going to want to go and bang and give us an option in the post," Inge said.

When the post players are doing big man drills, Inge is usually on their side of the court giving pointers while an assistant beats on the players with foam pads. It's clear that Inge, a former big man coach at The Citadel, has a lot of basketball pointers to pass along to his post players.

For a real team learning experience, Inge might could guard them himself, but unfortunately, torn cartilage in his knee doesn't allow it to be an option.

"I wish I could but my knee won't let me do that," Inge said. "I had six surgeries and they want to do No. 7 and they can't guarantee the pain being removed so I was like 'you don't need to do it.' I've got to think, if I do it now, I'll be hurting the next two weeks. I just try to coach them to the best of my ability, walk them through it, and let somebody else beat on them."

After his days at State were done, Inge played overseas for a short time - a scenario that ended badly when the team became late on payments.

"They messed around with my money so I had to get out of there. I was there three months and only got paid for one," Inge said. "I got with my agent and I said, 'I've got to get out of here, I'm halfway across the world playing for free.'"

After that fiasco, Inge landed in the CBA playing for the Rockford (Ill.) Lightning. His career got off to a great start as he was named Rookie of the Year in 2002, but his playing days were cut short when he tore the knee cartilage.

Inge had started from almost Day One for the Pack under then-coach Herb Sendek, still ranking third-most in school history in starts.

After Inge played his last game for the red and white, he ranked 21st on the school's all-time scoring list, and has only been surpassed since by Anthony Grundy and Julius Hodge.

His favorite playing moment came on Feb. 21, 1998, when the Pack knocked off No. 1 North Carolina on the road and the freshman Inge recorded a double-double. His next favorite came against Georgia Tech, where Inge had seven dunks against future NBA draftees Jason Collier and Alvin Jones.

It's these collegiate days that have allowed Inge to draw upon a reservoir of basketball knowledge. He keeps in contact not only with Sendek, but members of the current State staff. Inge said he'll check in with the coaches, sometimes asking questions about what else he could be doing for his team.

"I know I talked to [Pack assistant] coach [Pete] Strickland. I can't even count the number of times I've talked to him," Inge said. "I talked to coach Sendek this past week. I don't try to bother them too much since the season has started."

After four years under Sendek, a phone call isn't needed to get the specifics of certain half-court sets - Inge remembers those well.

"A lot of [our plays] actually [are] from the coach Sendek book," Inge said. "A lot of them are a lot of sets I ran and I'm real comfortable with. As time goes on we'll change things up but right now I think I've got a good group where setting plays and spreading the offense work."

Inge said his players, the oldest of which would've been 12 when he still played for the Pack, don't remember much about him other what than what they can find out via Google.

However, they can find out every day in practice in how Inge continues to work with them.

"I think the type of player I was, I always felt like I had a pretty good eye for the game," Inge said. "I'm still adjusting to the coaching aspect of it but a lot of it is me using my player experience. Now I've just got to turn and teach it to them."