Augusta, stand up. Take a bow.
My father used to say, “It’s a sorry dog that doesn’t wag its own tail.” Augusta, I think you should definitely get some tail wagging in this week.
It’s official. Augusta is the epicenter for high school basketball in the state of Georgia. No other city or town in Georgia does basketball like you.
Period.
End of discussion. But let’s talk about it anyway.
The Josey Lady Eagles and the Westside Patriots are both heading back to Macon Thursday for a chance at a state championship.
For Josey, it would be its second in the last four years. For Westside, well, can you say, “3-peat?”
Coach Jerry Hunter can. But he can’t do it without first thanking a higher power.
“To God be the glory,” Hunter said when asked his initial thoughts on his top-ranked Patriots’ 70-59 win over Columbia Saturday in Milledgeville. The win officially punched his team’s ticket to the GHSA Class AA state championship game against Toombs County Thursday at 3 p.m. at the Macon Coliseum.
“It’s unreal. It’s surreal,” Hunter continued, speaking slowly, deliberately as if he were truly trying to find the words to say. “To be here last year, and back this year knowing we have an opportunity.
Josey girls coach Nichelle Chapman wasn’t much better than Hunter at finding the precise words to capture the feeling.
“I don’t know whether to cry or laugh,” Chapman said moments after Josey knocked off Central-Macon 45-38, doing it in come-from-behind fashion.
“I have a million thoughts, emotions,” the second-year head coach said. “It’s straight surreal right now. Like I said, I don’t know whether to cry or jump for joy. I really don’t.”
But Hunter knew enough to realize that the Georgia high school basketball world is discovering that Augusta is no longer a hidden gem.
“I think the state of Georgia is recognizing that, hey, right now, there’s something special going on [in basketball] in Augusta,” Hunter said. “And right now, we’ve gotta build on it. It can be a situation where our community can change with this. But we’ve got to buy in. We’ve got to put the right resources in front of these kids at the right ages.”
Here’s what’s been going on in Augusta-area basketball since 2012: 18 state championships from nine different area schools. Four back-to-back state champs and one program, North Augusta, that won four straight from 2017-2020.
Those state crowns range from Class A to Class AAAAAA, both on the boys and girls side, in both Richmond and Columbia counties and in both states of our coverage area.
The city will have two chances to add to that state championship total Thursday. And if one or both teams make good on their quest for state crowns, I’m calling for whomever is in the realm of large scale decision making in our city to create something big, grand and special to commemorate the accomplishments of these kids.
If Westside wins a third straight championship, you’ll literally have a dynasty on your hands, Augusta. In the 102 years that the GHSA has been keeping track of state basketball championships, only 10 programs have won three straight state championships.
Miller Grove leads them all with six straight from 2009-2014. Ironically, the Columbia program Westside beat in Milledgeville Saturday is one of the most recent to win three straight. No one else has done it since Wilkinson County won a trio of consecutive Class A state titles from 2017-2019.
That’s a long way of saying, what Westside, Josey and the rest of the city is doing is rare.
When I was on 92.9FM The Game’s Saturday morning radio show discussing the Augusta area’s basketball prowess, I was asked an interesting question regarding what was the “secret” so to speak to the city’s success.
I thought about it a moment. And then it hit me — it’s coaching.
Stop and think about the level of coaching acumen Augusta high school hoops boasts. Westside’s Jerry Hunter is one of a few to have coached multiple teams to state championships.
Lawrence Kelly built a boys basketball powerhouse in short order at Cross Creek to go along with the success girls coach Kim Schlein was able to curate for 20 years.
At Butler, Cervantes Boddy played for a state title in his first year as head coach, then spent the next 13 seasons keeping Butler in the conversation annually, while playing for another against Westside two years ago.
Now, Chaz Clark, a former player and long-time assistant for Boddy, placed Butler boys basketball into the Class AA Final Four in his first year at the helm, with a smallish roster and a group of young guys learning to lead on the court for the first time.
Staying at Butler, we can’t underestimate the job Eboni Fields is doing coaching girls basketball. In five seasons, she’s gone 92-53 and should grab her 100th coaching win at Butler next season. Her Lady Bulldogs have never missed the state tournament since she’s been there.
And this year, she helped coach a young lady who’s never played high school basketball before to double-digit scoring and double-digit college scholarship offers in her first and last high school season.
And that’s just in the Augusta city limits. Lest we forget coaches like Darren Douglas at Grovetown who won state championships at both Aquinas and with the Warriors. Thomson’s Michael Thomas has been at it for over 40 years and has built a powerhouse program that’s been a picture of consistency.
North Augusta has won five state championships in the last seven years, and head coach Al Young is a big reason why. And even at Lakeside, you can already see the difference a year makes under first-season leader Matt Scott.
The thing is, all of these coaches could easily go to other programs in bigger classifications and cities and be successful. They choose, however, to stay in Augusta and keep building for this city — a city that, particularly this sports calendar year — has been dogged with reports of violence involving students in several area high schools.
And here’s where I step up on my soap box a bit. When those school shootings and football field fights happened, people made much ado about it. It was talked about, written about, broadcasted on television.
People gathered to discuss it in churches, community and civic organizations. Let’s keep that same energy for the times when these young athletes do good things — both in and out of the classroom.
I say, win or lose, the city should do something publicly to honor what these teams have done to get as far as they have. And especially if Westside makes history with a three-peat or if both Westside and Josey win state championships, somebody needs to plan something — a parade, a city-wide pep rally at Augusta University’s gym. Something.
Back when Laney alum Jaylen Watson won a second straight Super Bowl with the Kansas City Chiefs, I wrote that his jersey should be retired at Laney and that the city should recognize him big. I still feel that way, plus some when it comes to these basketball athletes.
Lots of talk is happening right now about school closures, right-sizing and how to make Richmond County schools, in particular, more competitive in the classroom and through athletics. Some of the solutions are complex and will require decisions to be made at a level way above most of our pay grades.
But one thing, I believe, we can all do to help our local schools keep a competitive edge is support them.
You and I may not be able to move the needle much in terms of giving coaches more money or giving the athletes better facilities. But we can show high-level appreciation whenever accomplishments warrant such.
That’s what keeps good coaches around. Feeling appreciated. That’s what motivates young students to keep achieving. Feeling appreciated.
And the good news is, much of the basic appreciation that our local coaches and athletes ask for doesn’t cost more than the money it takes to buy a ticket to the game or to put gas in the car to drive to a venue. That’s bare minimum stuff, but it’s also heartfelt and goes a long way.
I love how loud and vocal Augusta-area fans were in Milledgeville Saturday for the three teams that competed in the Final Four. Let’s try to double that for Macon Thursday.
And especially if (when?) one or both of these teams bring home state championship hardware, let’s go out of our way as an entire city to show them love.
Years ago when my home-state Nebraska Cornhuskers were winning national championships in college football, one of my favorite places to be after a bowl game victory was on 72nd and Dodge Street in my hometown of Omaha. That’s where people would gather and celebrate victory on the game’s biggest stage.
I’ll never forget when I covered high school sports in metro Atlanta and Ola High School won a state softball championship, the people in that small Henry County community literally flooded the streets in support of this high school softball team.
With all the fervor and passion Augusta fans bring to high school basketball, there’s no reason why such a show of a support shouldn’t or couldn’t happen here.
Make it happen. Show this city’s athletes that you have their back when they represent this city in the best ways possible. Wag the tail, Augusta, and help push the true narrative that good things can and do come from your city.
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.
