WENDELL - When Kenny Inge left N.C. State in 2001 after a successful basketball career for the Wolfpack, he was banking on a career in a sport that bought him an education.

But after just a few years playing professionally overseas and six knee surgeries, Inge closed the book on his playing career and opened a new chapter as a coach. Now the Cary Academy basketball coach hopes to earn a teaching certificate that will allow him to enter the classroom again ... this time as a teacher.

Inge was on the Wendell Middle School campus earlier this month speaking to students in Amanda Nunn's seventh-grade students.

Nunn and Inge are classmates at N.C. Wesleyan in Rocky Mount, where they are working to complete their teaching certificates.

Inge told the students he did not apply himself in high school until it was too late to earn the grades coaches at N.C. State were looking for.

The Virginia Beach, Va. native spent a year at Hargrave Military Academy getting his grades in order. He said the experience was good in terms of helping him become the master of his own time, but he said the military life wasn't for him.

"I got enough of the military lifestyle in that one year to last me for the rest of my life," Inge told the students.

After Inge completed his prepared remarks, he took questions from the students, who had prepared for the press-conference-style visit by generating a lengthy list of questions.

Students took turns peppering Inge with questions about his experience at N.C. State and in professional basketball.

Among some of Inge's more interesting comments: he took up basketbal in high school after his mother made him give it a try. Inge learned the game from his brother and a neighbor and he was Rookie of the Year in the CBA, a sort of minor league for professional basketball players looking to make it in the NBA.