Happy Peach Jam, Everyone!
It’s that time of year again when the best of the best and the elite of the elite converge on to North Augusta for the climax of Nike’s EYB Summer Circuit.
Each year, the Peach Jam brings an extra dosage of basketball buzz to a city already overrun with high school hoops fervor. And though there won’t be as many local athletes competing in this year’s Peach Jam as in year’s past, the one who will is actually a quite appropriate representation of what high school basketball has become here in Augusta.
I’m talking about none other than Westside rising junior point guard Dontrell Jackson.
I won’t do a rundown in this space of all he’s been apart of during his first two years of high school or even how he specifically parlayed his summer activity to a Peach Jam roster spot. You can read here how he played his way onto the Jet Academy roster, named after NBA legend and current Inside the NBA co-host Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
But what I’ll say here is this — if you could only have one local player to jump on stage with the country’s best high school basketball prospects, you’d want it to come from the CSRA’s — and arguably, the entire state of Georgia’s — hottest and best programs.
Westside’s three-year run of dominance in Class AA is toeing the line of dynasty proportions. And every time you think coach Jerry Hunter and company are going to run out of state title talent with the next graduating class, you look up and see a junior doing Eastbay dunks with ease during the state playoffs (looking at you, Jarious Adkinson) or a sophomore point guard growing up right before our eyes en route to a third straight state crown.
Jackson is that sophomore. It would be cliche to say that he represents the future. No. Instead, it’s apropos to say he represents the blueprint.
That’s the word Richmond County athletic director Scott McClintock used back in May when he attended Westside’s third straight state championship ring party.
“Jerry Hunter has the blueprint to creating championship programs in this area,” McClintock said. “Whatever he’s doing, it’s working.”
I’ll tell you what he’s doing. He’s building deep, which, in an era of transfer portals, NIL opportunities and players constantly on the search for “the best fit for me,” Hunter has managed to create a formula that’s more cerebral than it is X’s and O’s. It’s a formula that focuses on mindset first, even before fundamentals.
He builds mental toughness and dexterity and creates an environment that’s equal parts intense and infectious — meaning, the players who sign up to be a part of the Jerry Hunter Westside machine will work their tails off while being stretched to their emotional and mental limits. Yet, judging by the program’s low turnover during this three-year run, nobody seems to mind.
And Hunter’s not afraid to start the indoctrination process on his players from day one.
Take a snapshot of his tenure. Look at when the Westside stars truly began to twinkle.
While Felix Booker was pacing the Patriots during the 2019-20 season averaging 15 points per game, freshmen Khalon Hudson and Jalexs Ewing and AuMauri Tillman were burgeoning from the bench.
When they started showing signs of becoming the Westside Big 3 that would eventually lead the Patriots to the first two of their trio of championships, they were sophomores. And guess who was waiting in the wings? A freshman point guard by the name of Demarco Middleton.
Middleton averaged double figures in points and half a dozen assists as a sophomore. He took on a slightly bigger role as a junior while the aforementioned Big 3 enjoyed a second straight Class AA state crown on their way to graduation.
But when did Middleton first step into the fray? As a ninth grader averaging almost eight points and three assists per game for a 17-7 Westside bunch that finished second in region play and had a Sweet 16 appearance in the Class AA state tournament. Now, watch this.
When Middleton was getting his feet wet as a junior, you know who was watching? A young, impressionable freshman named Dontrell Jackson.
He got mop-up duty during state title No. 2, averaging 4.2 points while seeing action in 30 of Westside’s 31 games. But in true coach Hunter fashion, as Middlebrooks was singing his senior swan song en route to title No. 3, it was Jackson the sophomore looking like Middlebrooks did two years prior.
His 7.6 points, three assists and two steals per game gave Hunter priceless opportunities to spell Middlebrooks and Lavonta Ivery in crucial moments down the stretch of the season.
Now, with another group of senior stars out the door, guess who’s getting the keys to the offense for the 2024-25 season (barring any unexpected transfer shenanigans)?
Yep, you guessed it. But it’s not just Jackson. Rising senior Aldrion Jones has been turning heads this offseason with Jackson. Fellow upcoming juniors Keori Atwell and Javan Webb are poised to shine.
Hunter said Webb would’ve also likely played on a Peach Jam roster if not for injury. And, of course, “Mr. Eastbay,” Jarious Adkinson looks poised for a breakout senior season.
So Jackson being the lone local product in the Peach Jam says more about the state of local high school basketball than you may think.
Jackson says he wants to “put on for his city” during next week’s festivities. And I say, regardless of if he averages two or 22 points per game, his presence alone in arguably the national high school game’s biggest and most prestigious stage is enough for the city to poke its chest out and brag a bit on what Augusta high school basketball has become.
What has it become?
Well, in the words of both Hunter and particular McClintock, Augusta-area basketball has become the gateway to state championships, particularly in Class AA and Class AAA, not to mention Class AAAA in the SCHSL girls scene (think North Augusta) or the Class AAAA in the SCISA (think Augusta Christian boys which just missed a three-peat of its own this past season).
And if you really dig deep, you’ll find that each successful program in this area, regardless of where or who, utilizes at least some form of this “Hunter blueprint.” Even with independent trainers like Darrin Shine, it’s clear that the city believes in developing the talent in the area from the earliest ages possible.
That includes the players and coaches. Look, for example, at Butler boys basketball. Coach Cervantes Boddy was at the helm for over a decade. His successor? Chaz Clark, someone who came up as a player on Boddy’s first teams and then came back to be tutored as an assistant coach on the sideline before taking the reins.
Clark’s first Bulldog team almost pulled a Boddy — playing for a state championship in his first season as head coach.
Look at what coach Lawrence Kelly has built over the last half decade at Cross Creek — a boys basketball program now with multiple state and region championships that was on nobody’s basketball radar before he arrived.
Yes, the Augusta-area’s passion and investment for high school basketball is real — perhaps unmatched, even, in the state of Georgia.
It’s the chief reason why, despite the crazy success particularly over the last three or four years, most coaches elect to stick and stay right here in the Augusta area. Not because they have nowhere else to go. But because they believe in what Augusta produces.
That’s not lost on McClintock.
“I do worry every March when basketball season is over with, and even sometimes before that,” McClintock said. “It makes me nervous every March thinking who are we gonna lose. But we don’t lose many because they’re all dedicated and love this community. And I know people have come knocking, and I’m not saying these coaches will never leave if that right job comes along. But I think they stay because they know the talent in the Augusta area and the passion here, and it keeps them close.”
Players like Dontrell Jackson keep coaches like Jerry Hunter around despite annual overtures from bigger programs in bigger cities. Perhaps to see just how far they can take this basketball thing in a city that too often gets swept aside in the sports talent conversation in favor of Atlanta or South Georgia.
Augusta’s got talent. Jackson’s presence in the Peach Jam will prove it once again. He represents not just what the city’s basketball prowess has become. He represents the tried and true way and process and “blueprint” that made it happen.
And that, Augusta hoops fans, is something you ought to come to North Augusta next week and loudly celebrate every time Westside’s native son takes the court.
Gabriel Stovall is the sports editor of The Augusta Press. He can be reached at gabriel@theaugustapress.com.
