Mike Gurley is the manager of the group that has given us No. 1 hit after No. 1 hit and he was in Hickory to promote it.

In other words, the Western Regional Basketball Tournament begin with its annual press conference.

Gurley, of course, is the West boys basketball coach and the regional press conference has become his American Bandstand.

Rather, his personal grandstand. He rises from his chair like 47 other coaches in four classifications and talks about his team, his media and the entourage he has brought with him.

This is the fifth time in six years a Gurley-coached team has made it to Hickory. For Henry Kluttz, the principal, it is nine of 11 and 11 of the last 15 years.

When Kluttz walked in, Que Tucker of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association told him, “Well, you’re just going to come up here every year.”

It certainly seems that way. West Rowan, along with Hickory High and West Charlotte, are the Beatles of high school basketball. When it comes time to talk about the best, West Rowan is always mentioned.

“That’s the Beatles mentality,” Gurley joked. “I don’t like playing those little night clubs that seat 2,000. I want to get in the big stadium. As far as I’m concerned, the regionals is that big stadium. I like playing on that big stage.”

He proved it when it was his turn to stand up and talk to the room of stressed-out, intense coaching types. He tried to lighten things up by grabbing a comb from girls coach Angie Waddell — who, by the way, will be coaching her team in the regionals as well — and began playfully running it across his shaved head. Everybody laughed.

But that’s just Gurley. He was on stage and playing to the audience.

“It’s like the Rolling Stones.” he explained. “They probably won’t play a concert in Fayetteville but if you tell them they’re going to New York City and Madison Square Garden, they’ll show up.

“That’s the way we feel. We’ve had our fill of the Piedmonts and playing Outhouse High in the woods 80 miles away. We want to play on this stage.”

The regional press conference brings together administrators and coaches from the West to eat and gab, while perhaps sneaking a peek at coaches you’ve heard about and read about but never met.

Gurley is one of those coaches people want to see. His reputation as a bench coach and motivator are unprecedented. His antics on the sidelines are even more legendary.

Earlier this season at Sun Valley, some WFNZradio personalities decided they’d take a hike to Sun Valley to see Scooter Sherrill. What they raved about on the air the next day, however, was the coach wearing all black, stomping, cheering, clapping and bellowing.

They called him “Dr. Evil.” He got more air-time than Sherrill.

Gurley actually called in, introduced himself as “Dr. Evil” and did a few minutes for the thousands of listeners. The rock and roll show had gone on the road again for a little promotion.

Gurley was prepared to promote with any and every reporter after lunch That’s when the guys with the tape recorders mill around and talk to the coaches playing their their area’s teams in the regionals.

Gurley just stood against the wall, his 6-5 frame hard to miss. But no one came over.

The look on his face told it all.

Where is everybody? Doesn’t someone want to talk about Scooter? Where’s a reporter from Asheville? Aren’t we playing Asheville Erwin Friday night?

“Gurley’s upset because he isn’t getting any air time,” chuckled Kluttz.

Gurley even laughed at that one. He didn’t really care. He was enjoying being a part of this coaching fraternity.

“You know, I don’t coach for the supplement,” he said. “The supplement pays for a couple rounds of golf — after taxes. Icoach to make the regionals. Because when you get to the regionals, that means you’ve got a chance. And that’s all you can ask for.

“And that’s why I love this. I look around and see great coaches like West Charlotte’s Gosnell White and Reynolds’ Howard West.

“This might be the last time I get to come to one of these, you never know,” Gurley said. “So I try to make it fun.”

And then, he stares down at Central Cabarrus coach Scott Brewer, sitting nearby, who seems a foot shorter but is just as boisterous. There’s Bo Brickels, who has taken over the Concord girls team. Success is at each and every table.

“I think there’s a direct correlation to how much time you put in during the offseason and what it equals in the season,” he said. “Scott’s team plays 25-30 games in the summer and goes to camps. We’re doing the same thing. So is Angie. And that’s non-paying time. But you’ve got to put the work in. There’s not many teams here that didn’t put in the work.”

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Gurley finally realizes that no one besides the Salisbury Post people were going to talk to him. So he looks over at his entourage and says, “Let’s go.”

The talking, what little of it he did, was over. It was time to begin thinking about hitting the court and trying to advance past these regionals.

“There’s some great groups coming up the hill to play basketball,” he noted.

But none more famous than the one playing that sweet music from Mount Ulla.

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