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The kids are alright: BCMS coach leads strong basketball squad
BCMS
COURTSIDE: Eighth-grader Anthony King (10) drives the left baseline. Photo by Mike Brown.

Mike Brown, Sports Correspondent

Bryan County High School’s boys’ basketball team is top heavy with upper classmen: the 12-man varsity roster has six seniors and three juniors along with one sophomore and two freshmen.

That could make for some growing pains next year but Coach Jason Napier, in his first season, is confident about the Redskins future. And there is a basis for that optimism.

It can be found at the middle school where Coach Winston Johnson has a team which has run roughshod over its region foes this season.

The junior high Redskins are 11-2 after posting a 44-8 win over Emanuel County Institute Tuesday afternoon in the opening round of the region tournament which Bryan County is hosting.

Bryan County, which won the regular season race to earn the No. 1 seed, will meet Metter on Thursday at approximately 4 p.m., said Johnson.

Johnson is in his third year coaching the middle school team and he is starting to churn out players for the high school program. Sophomore Aaden Frederick is developing into a valuable reserve while freshmen Breaden Sharpe and Gerome Lee suit up for the varsity.

“Winston is doing a great job,” said Napier while watching the easy win over ECI. “He’s got a good group of eighth graders and the seventh-grade group is a real good group. We had a full intrasquad scrimmage on Monday and I had the eighth-graders play and they did okay against the varsity and jayvees.”

Johnson is a community coach who works full-time at Gulfstream, but he is no stranger to coaching having coached for several years in the recreation program at Hendrix Park which is where most Bryan County athletes get their start.

The Pembroke native and BCHS graduate got the middle school job thanks to former coach Brent Anderson and athletic director Blaine Ennis reaching out when the previous coach left in the summer shortly before school started.

“I knew Coach Anderson because my father (Charles Johnson) and his father had worked together,” Johnson said, “and I had coached Gunner (Ennis’ youngest son who is a freshman at the high school). They helped me get the classes I needed for certification and Gulfstream has been really good about letting me come in two hours early every day so I can leave on time for practice and games.”

Coaching at a public school is no ego trip for Johnson who played four years of basketball under coaches Keith Bazemore and Allen Clarke. It was a rough four years. The best team he was on was one which went 7-16 in 2011.

“I’m from Pembroke and that makes coaching here more worthwhile,” said Johnson who, in addition to coaching in the rec league, also coaches travel ball teams in the summer. “I know about the opportunities these kids get and don’t get.

“They didn’t know how to win, what it was like to win,” Johnson said. “I’ve been coaching most of these kids since they were in the fourth grade. When they were 10 our rec league team was unbeaten, won the district and finished second in the state. Then I got involved with the travel team and it’s been growing ever since.”

In the win over ECI the Redskins simply overpowered the Bulldogs, holding them scoreless in the first and fourth quarters.

Johnson played all 14 players on his roster and eight of them scored with Kameron Joyner’s nine points leading the way. Josiah Joseph and Anthony King had eight each while Tristan Johnson and TJ McBrayer each scored seven. Kingston Williams added six with AJ Collins and Jaylen Dodd getting two.

Other team members are Roderick Stephens, Antonio Cruz, Banks White, Jamarion Cosey, Jaidyn Allen and Damari Grant.

The starters are eighth-graders King, Collins, Williams, McBrayer and Johnson, a seventh-grader. Stephens, an eighth-grader, is another key player, Johnson said.

Johnson said his first team won one game, moved up to 5-5 last year and then this year saw it all come together this season.

“That first year was rough,” Johnson said. “I had to get the kids to buy in, build the skill level and confidence. We did a lot of work in the summer. I realized these kids had a lot of potential and I coach them year round.

“I knew going into this season we had grown tremendously and knew the year would be special if they stayed focused and had the grades,” Johnson said. “The first word in student-athlete is student and I place a major emphasis on grades. I tell them they have to take care of business in school and at home and we’ll take care of business in the gym.”

It’s hard to project the future for a middle school age youngster but Johnson said he believes King and Collins will make the varsity team next year as will Stephens.

“Anthony is a guard and is one of those big kids (5-foot-11) who can do it all,” Johnson said. “I think he and AJ, as well as Stephens, will be ready next year. I’ve been coaching them since they were seven-eight years old.

They’re good kids, good players. They just can’t lose focus and sight of their goals.”

Mike Brown is a sports correspondent with the Bryan County News.


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