It’s not easy to defend a state basketball championship. It’s even more difficult when you’re trying to remain in contention for a national championship. But as the high school season begins in earnest this weekend, the Grayson boys are pushing the right buttons.
The Rams, the 7A champions last season, are playing in Class 6A this season. Entering play Friday, they are 11-1 and ranked No. 7 in the nation by MaxPreps and No. 18 nationally by ESPN. Their only loss came against No. 3 Columbus of Miami, and coach Geoffrey Pierce’s team already has beaten traditional Georgia powers Tri-Cities, Milton, Cedar Grove, Wheeler and Grovetown, which is one reason MaxPreps rated it as the toughest in the state.
“We just keep challenging our guys so they don’t start smelling themselves,” Pierce said.
After playing Archer on Friday in the Region 8 opener, the Rams host McEachern on Saturday in a rematch of last year’s state championship game.
“With teenagers, it’s easy for them to get complacent, not be able to see past right now,” Pierce said. “But they’ve done a good job staying engaged and playing hard at all times. The focus is on trying to get better every day and for us to be playing our best ball come the postseason.”
The Kell boys are one of three schools, along with Sandy Creek and Westside-Augusta, trying to win their third consecutive state championship. But restructuring the GHSA classification system changed the landscape.
Kell won the 5A title the past two seasons, but now plays in 4A, along with defending champion North Oconee. Sandy Creek has won two consecutive Class 3A titles but now shares the classification with Westside, winner of the past two 2A championships.
Kell has only two starters back from last season — wing Connor Staphylaris, one of only three seniors on the roster, and junior forward King Jones. B.J. Love and Zach Graves, who played plenty of minutes as freshman last season, have larger roles this year.
“We have a young team, lots of juniors, lots of sophomores, couple of freshmen,” Kell coach Jermaine Sellers said. “It’s a different team but the expectations are still the same. We’ve got to get them to understand the expectations. To be 12-3 with this group, I’m pretty pleased, and I can see how we could make another run.”
And with at the private schools in the bottom four classifications now competing in their own postseason tournament, there are two state champions in the mix — Mount Vernon Christian, who won Class A Division I, and Greenforest Christian Academy, who won Class A Division II.
The private school setup will have even more impact for girls basketball. Mount Paran Christian has won three consecutive Class 2A championships and Hebron Christian (3A) and St. Francis (Class A Division I) have both won two in a row. Greenforest Christian (Class A Division II) won its first title last season. All four state champions will be in the same 32-team pot when the state playoffs start in February.
The Grayson girls, last year’s 7A champion, will play in 6A, the top classification. But Marist, the 6A winner last spring, is now in Class 4A, along with Maynard Jackson, who won 5A last spring. Baldwin, the reigning 3A champion, is back in the same classification to defend its title.
