Seven days removed from Westside’s third straight Class AA state championship, and it’s kind of tough to avoid the elephant-in-the-room question, so let’s go ahead and ask it here and now.
Can Westside make it No. 4 next year?
Whenever a question like that is asked, the knee-jerk response is to make a bee-line to the roster and see who’s leaving and who’s returning. But we learned from last year that playing the roster comparison game is not an exact science.
So, while I’m not here to predict whether the Patriots will or won’t run it back a fourth time, I will give you five reasons why the possibility shouldn’t be dismissed.
JERRY HUNTER’S BORDERLINE DYNASTY
One of the questions asked of Westside coach Jerry Hunter after the Patriots finished shellacking Toombs County in the Class AA final last Thursday was, “Is this a dynasty?”
Hunter isn’t one for a lot of coach speak. He doesn’t mince words. But he’s also very careful and calculating with how he answered that question.
“As far as a dynasty goes, we’ve got to continue cooking,” Hunter said. “The recipe and the ingredients are there, right? But we’re in a day and time now where so many kids are being distracted by so many things. You may have somebody here trying to pull them one way and another way. You may have this or that team trying to get them, so if we can get them all back this way, it’s possible. But keeping them together in this day and time, it’s kinda tough.”
Let’s talk through this a bit. Hunter said the ingredients and recipe is there. What’s the recipe for Westside basketball’s success?
It starts with defense. Aggressive, diverse defense that stresses opponents into mistakes.
Those mistakes ignite a transition game that wears most opponents down before halftime, featuring guards who look to push the ball up court immediately, bigs who are long, rangy and athletic, and at least someone who can drain it from three-point land consistently.
Another ingredient is depth. Last year, the big focus was on Westside’s big three of Khalon Hudson, Jalexs Ewing and AuMauri Tillman. Then-junior point guard Demarco Middleton was the team’s undisputed floor general.
But what you didn’t see behind the scenes is how the rigor of Westside’s practices. And how guys like Bobby Blackwell, Jarious Adkinson, Javan Webb and Dontrell Jackson — all fairly unknown last year — were getting better each day at practice, going against that three-headed monster.
“When you’re playing against guys like that in practice, and then you get out into a game against teams who don’t have that kind of talent, it makes the game come to you more easily,” Hunter said earlier in the season.
Five seniors depart the roster. They are, Demarco Middleton, Lavonta Ivery, Bobby Blackwell, Xavier Goss and Brandon Borders.
That means it would be guys like Adkinson and Aldrion Jones’ turn to step up as senior leaders with rising juniors like Jackson, Webb and Keori Atwell learning the ropes. But due to Hunter’s insistence on inserting inexperience into high-pressure situations, those young players won’t be new to big moments, big stages or big games.
ESTABLISHED LEADERSHIP CULTURE IS CONTAGIOUS
In any healthy organization, you have respected leaders and you have people who want to be like those respected leaders.
Such is the case at Westside. Take, for example, a story Hunter told about how Middleton and Goss — the two Patriot seniors who’ve been in the mix for the last four years — set the tone for perhaps the most locked-in pre-game shootaround the team had all season.
“They were poised and composed [before the Toombs County game],” Hunter said. “A lot of times they’re overly excited, but the two kids, Xavier and Marco, who have played in multiple state championship games and on championship teams, told them straight off the bus, ‘Hey, look. This is what we’re here for. This is what’s gonna happen and how we’re going to handle it.’
“So any time anything got out of line, it was one of those guys who put them in check.”
The last two years before that, it was Hudson, Ewing and Tillman doing the “checking,” and Middleton and Goss were learning from them.
Young players see that and respect it, which makes them say they can’t wait until it’s their turn to be that. When culture like that begins to seep into the depths of an organization or a team, it becomes something that others want to emulate.
Because of that, Westside’s departing seniors feel good about what they’re leaving behind.
“It feels good just having those young guys around us, looking at our work ethic and how we work,” Ivery said. “Following us and following our foot path. So they’re winners at the end of the day, and so they’re gonna keep going on like next year and try to win them another one.”
COACHING AT WESTSIDE NEXT TO NONE IN GEORGIA
Last week on social media, I made what some would consider to be a bold statement. I said that there aren’t 10 teams in Georgia, regardless of classification, better than Westside. And there aren’t five coaches in Georgia, regardless of classification, better than Jerry Hunter.
I stand by it, and I don’t believe I’m the only one.
Obviously, in all viable GHSA basketball rankings, Westside finishes No. 1 in Class AA. But check out what others say:
Basketball enthusiast Joel Hillsman ranks Westside as the No. 6 team in Georgia, regardless of classification. He places them ahead of Class AAAAAAA semifinalist Wheeler, and Class AAAAA and Class AAAAAA runners up Eagle’s Landing and Alexander, respectively, and just behind Class AAAAAAA state champion Grayson, the McEachern team it defeated for the state title, Class AAAAA and Class AAA state champs Kell and Sandy Creek and Class A champion Greenforest.
Maxpreps.com, a site that tracks and ranks high school sports teams all across the country, has Westside seated at No. 8 in Georgia, behind Grayson, McEachern, Kill, Alexander, Sandy Creek, Wheeler and Eagle’s Landing, and above Greenforest and Class AAAAAAA Newton.
When you watch Westside on the court, then watch top teams from other classifications, you see virtually the same thing. Athletic, rangy big men who can stretch the floor, heady floor generals who aren’t afraid to push the action but are also careful with the basketball and teams that get a majority of their offense as a reward in transition from solid defense.
That seems to be the formula for success right now in Georgia high school basketball, and Westside makes it work as good as anyone.
But that can only happen through quality coaching. And Hunter is as good as they come. Here’s one way to prove it:
When you want to know if someone’s success is either part of who they are or just an aberration, find the ways where their success is reproducible.
You can do that with Hunter. Before his last five seasons at Westside, Hunter was Laney’s head boys basketball coach for three years. He coached them to a couple of Final Fours and the school’s first and only boys basketball state championship in 2012.
Marquez Gibson, a track and field coach and trainer in Augusta, remembers the buzz Hunter generated in those days.
“It’s crazy,” Gibson said. “While Coach was at Laney and everybody wanted to play for him, they said Laney was recruiting. Now he’s at Westside and the same results. It’s because he’s a father figure and understands the youth.”
Another Augusta resident and former Westside student, Roderick Harrison, compared Hunter’s run at the school to another legendary coach in the city.
“When I grew up playing football in Augusta, the older people would always talk about coach David Dupree and Laney [and] how great they were and all the players that came through Laney’s football program,” Harrison said. “Now, and forever, people will be talking about coach Hunter and the [Westside] basketball program and all the great players to come through Westside basketball. They will always have a strong brotherhood.”
Dupree was Laney’s head football coach for 25 years (1958-1983) and won two state championships (1961, 1966) and two region titles (1968, 1971).
Speaking of Laney, while Hunter was building a state championship program at Laney on the hardwood, he was also doing what may be seen as one of the toughest sports tasks in Richmond County — building a viable, winning baseball program from a public school.
Hunter did that during his time at Laney from 1999 through 2019. He helped coach a once-doormat Wildcats baseball team to a state tournament fixture while also giving the program its first-ever region championship during the 2017 season, beating perennial power Harlem in the process.
“Those were some trying years, man,” Hunter said. “Building an inner-city baseball team from scratch was tough. Eventually, we became a winning program, making the state playoffs consistently. We were blessed to win the [school’s] only region championship in 2017, beating out Harlem to secure the achievement.”
When you can replicate your success across two different schools and two different sports, that’s no coincidence. That’s a pattern, and part of who you are.
WESTSIDE IS A DESTINATION SPOT
This is true because of everything I’ve said above. Listen, high school sports will mimic its bigger brothers in the top collegiate and professional levels. And while there may not be an official transfer portal in high school sports, “transfer life” is a thing.
Kids are finding ways and reasons to make transfer moves that don’t get them in trouble and put them in position to play in the programs they want. And as Hunter pointed out earlier, that makes it a challenge to keep kids in his program. But it also works the other way.
The more Westside flexes its program muscles, the more athletes will want to come and play for Hunter. And it isn’t just because of the winning. It’s because of who Hunter is and how who he is impacts the lives of his players.
Contrary to popular belief, teens do want structure. They want to feel like the adults in their lives care.
Take Ivery, for example. He transferred because he wanted to win a ring. That’s what all the kids say, right? Well, when you keep listening to him talk, you discover it’s more than just the ring.
Earlier in the season, Ivery spoke at length about how Hunter’s discipline and toughness on him helped round him out as a player. Ivery’s acquiescence to Hunter’s coaching, gave him the chance to become the most well-balanced version of himself as a high school player.
Ivery’s move got him what he wanted — which turned out to be much more than a piece of jewelry or a trophy.
“You know, Ivery said he wanted to come and win state and be a part of what we had here, and a lot of times kids say things, but you don’t know how much they really want it,” Hunter said. “But once he showed me that he really wanted it, I knew we’d have a chance to be something special.”
After last Thursday’s state championship win, Ivery said it was all worth it.
“I’m gonna remember all the hard times at practice,” he said. “When we bumped heads a couple of times, the 6 a.m. workouts. But at the end of the day, we’re all brothers and we came together as a family.”
GHSA RECLASSIFICATION FAVORS WESTSIDE
In case you hadn’t heard, Westside’s moving on up — into Class AAA, that is.
Back in November, the GHSA completed its region reclassification of schools that will take us through the end of the 2026 school year. Along with the reclass, the GHSA voted to eliminate its Class AAAAAAA category and gave private schools its own classification to compete from.
For Westside, it means no more Butler and Thomson as it enters into a newly constructed Region 4-AAA that includes Aquinas (3-19), Baldwin (27-3), Cross Creek (19-10), Harlem (14-12), Hephzibah (10-13), Howard (8-16), Richmond Academy (19-7) and West Laurens (2-20).
Combined, those teams (not counting Westside) posted a 102-100 record this past season, and produced five state tournament wins — three came from Baldwin and two came from Cross Creek.
Beyond the region, Westside’s toughest competition for a fourth straight state championship could come from Sandy Creek — a team that just captured its second straight Class AAA crown. Other solid programs set for Class AAA next year are Greater Atlanta Christian (22-8), Johnson-Savannah (20-12) which lost to Sandy Creek in the Class AAA final and Hebron Christian (25-4).
A region championship shouldn’t be too hard to imagine for Westside, but of course, this is so premature, with us having absolutely no idea what each team’s rosters will look like come November. But even a region runner-up finish puts Westside in a position to host a first round playoff game at minimum.
That’s not to say it will happen or that it will be easy. But what Westside and coach Hunter have shown us over the last three seasons — and perhaps this most recent campaign more than any — is that it isn’t smart right now to count out seeing a Westside boys basketball team play in the month of March.
Gabriel Stovall is sports editor for The Augusta Press. He can be reached at gabriel@theaugustapress.com. Follow him on X (Twitter), Instagram and Threads: @GabrielCStovall.
