Blake HS Coach Desmin Wade Joins Grambling State Basketball Staff

After leading Blake to a 23-2 season and MCPS title, Desmin Wade heads to Grambling State as General Manager and Assistant Coach under Patrick Crarey II

Brandy Simms | Jun 27, 2025

Former Blake head coach Desmin Wade is joining the men's basketball staff at Grambling State University. / Blake Athletics

Grambling State University men’s basketball head coach Patrick Crarey II has announced a new addition to his coaching staff.

Wade Leaves Blake After Historic Season

Desmin Wade, who led James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring, Maryland to a 23-2 record and a Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) championship during the 2024-25 campaign, has been named General Manager and Assistant Coach at Grambling State.

Success Across Montgomery County and Prince George’s

During a five-year stint at Blake, Wade guided the Bengals to a 91-35 record and compiled four division championships. Blake also captured a county championship and made five regional championship appearances under Wade’s watch.

Coaching Roots in the DMV

Prior to Blake, Wade served as head coach at High Point High School in Beltsville, Maryland where he guided the boys’ basketball program to their first regional final in more than 15 years during the 2018-19 campaign.

Reuniting with a Mentor at the Next Level

Wade began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Washington Adventist University (WAU) in Takoma Park, Maryland for one year and spent two years as the program’s Defensive Coordinator/Director of Basketball Operations.

Crarey Praises Longtime Protégé

“Desmin played for me and coached with me when I started my career at WAU,” Crarey said in a social media post on X. “He has been outstanding running his own program the last 8 years. Multiple championships at the High School level. One of the best prep coaches in the DMV. Elated to be reunited! Nobody knows me like D-Wade.”

Published Jun 27, 2025

BRANDY SIMMS

Brandy Simms is an award-winning sports journalist who has covered professional, college and high school sports in the DMV for more than 30 years including the NFL, NBA and WNBA. He has an extensive background in both print and broadcast media and has freelanced for SLAM, Dime Magazine and The Washington Post. A former Sports Editor for The Montgomery County Sentinel, Simms captured first place honors in the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association 2006 Editorial Contest for a sports column entitled “Remembering Len Bias.” The Oakland, California native began his postgraduate career at WMAL-AM Radio in Washington, D.C. where he produced the market’s top-rated sports talk show “Sports Call” with host Ken Beatrice. A former Sports Director for “Cable News 21,” Simms also produced sports at WJLA-TV and served as host of the award-winning “Metro Sports Connection” program on Montgomery Community Television. Simms is a frequent contributor to various radio and television sports talk shows in the Washington, D.C. market. In 2024, he made his national television debut on “The Rich Eisen Show” on the Roku Channel. He began contributing to High School On SI in 2025.