When Mario Mincey got the job as the girls basketball coach at Bryan County High School one of the first things he did was look at ways in which he could not only promote his program but girls basketball in general.
What Mincey came up with was the Bryan County Summer Jamboree. It’s a two-day event—it was held Monday and Tuesday this week—that brings together teams from South Georgia who play basketball continuously.
This year a total of 30 teams made up of more than 300 players participated in the 17th annual event. Games consisted of two 20-minute halves with the first game starting at 9:45 a.m. and the last at 6 p.m. Games were played in the high school and middle school gyms.
It was a hoops junkies paradise. Among the teams participating was Bradwell Institute which brought two teams and played games against Statesboro, Beach, Glynn Academy, Richmond Hill and Swainsboro.
The Summer Jam also attracts college coaches, mainly from smaller fouryear schools and junior colleges where they can see a lot of players without exhausting limited recruiting funds.
“Every time he’s had it we’ve come,” veteran Bradwell coach Faye Baker said. “First of all, it is run well. He (Mincey) has things really well organized, it’s timely, it’s close to home—we’re 25 minutes away—and it gives us a chance to play some good competition.
“We play teams we won’t see during the regular season,” Baker said. “You get to see some different looks and it gives you a chance to evaluate players.
“There’s nothing like playing a game against live competition. We can practice against one another all day long but it’s nothing like coming and competing against other teams. It’s summer games but there’s still a lot of pride.”
Bradwell’s game against Beach, for example, saw the Tigers hold a double- digit lead at the half but when the Bulldogs cut the deficit to five points the Tigers bowed their necks and won going away.
Baker will be starting her 29th season at Bradwell this coming season and if its game with Beach was any indication, it stands a good chance of repeating last year when it was 23-5 and advanced to the third round of the Class 5A state playoffs where it lost to eventual state champion Kell.
“We’ve got a good nucleus coming back,” Baker said. “We lost four seniors, two of them were starters. We started two sophomores and a freshman and they got a lot of good experience.”
Two of those seniors were 6-foot-3 Bailey Gilmore who signed with Vanderbilt and 5-2 guard Taniyah Bowman who will be playing at South Carolina-Beaufort.
The best player on the floor was rising junior Parris Parham who averaged 12.4 points and 7.5 rebounds per game last year. The other returning starters are junior Ta’tyana Anderson and sophomore Ja’Nya Bush.
“Parris is a special kid,” Baker said. “She’s been a starter for me since her freshman year. She’s one of those kids who does things a coach can’t teach.
I can’t take credit for a lot of the stuff she does. It’s just natural.”
One of those college scouts in attendance was East Georgia State College assistant Stefon Walker who played football and basketball at Liberty County. He graduated from Kennesaw State before getting into coaching. “I came here last year for the first time,” Walker said. “Coming here gives you the opportunity to see a lot of kids but first of all it helps in building connections and relationships. You see the players, get to talk to them, get to know them as a personal, especially those who are rising seniors and rising juniors.
“That first contact starts right here,” Walker said. “You see all these different teams, a lot of different players.
“Here you can really get your eyes on them, see them all in one place. It gives you a chance to see some players most coaches won’t ever see. This is a great thing Coach Mincey does, giving girls a chance to be seen.”