There was a moment for the Josey girls basketball team when head coach Nechelle Chapman and assistant Jamal Bailey, whom Chapman once called “her crutch,” saw their roles on the sideline shift from coach to counselor.
In the waning moments of Josey’s 59-52 loss to Mount Paran in the GHSA Class AA girls state championship game back on March 7, several key cogs of the Lady Eagles’ roster headed reluctantly to the bench after fouling out.
First sophomore Kerri Fluellen. While Josey was down 53-46 late in the fourth quarter, the Lady Eagles could’ve cut the lead to as few as four points as Fluellen took it to the cup and scored with what looked to be a potential 3-point play on a blocking foul.
Instead, after a slight hesitation, officials called a charging foul on Fluellen, causing her to foul out, which upset her to the point where she put her hands on her head in protest before resigning to the fact that her day was done.
There, Bailey spent time consoling her, then Chapman, before Fluellen slid to the end of the bench to helplessly watch the rest of the game.
Senior Kayla McCord was next. As she took her last few steps off the Macon Coliseum court, she fell into Chapman’s arms. The coach embraced her senior while also watching a jubilant Mount Paran player head to the free throw line.
“At that point, you kinda have to switch hats and go to mom and dad, counselor, best friend mode and just try to help them understand that just because you didn’t win a championship today doesn’t mean you won’t ever win won. It just wasn’t our time.
Many arguments could have been made by Josey fans about the quality of officiating playing a part or even the age-old debate about private schools and the advantages they seem to have over public schools. But in those final minutes of the season, none of that mattered.
All Chapman cared about was making sure her girls realized they had nothing to be ashamed of.
“I told them to hold their heads up,” Chapman said. “I told them we played a helluva game. A lot of our babies didn’t have that experience last year, so we really depended on a lot of newcomers. And that lack of experience and IQ caught up with us in that game.”
For about two-and-a-half quarters, Josey gave the defending Class AA champs — which also won a Class A title two years ago — everything they wanted.
The Eagles from Augusta matched up physically with the Eagles from Kennesaw in every way — and perhaps had some advantages. But as the game wore on, the intangibles of a championship team showed up and exposed the greener, younger contenders.
Chapman, herself, acknowledged it.
“Last year, even though Fluellen and [Shaniya] Sanders got more playing time than the rest, [KeAsia] Henderson was hurt. [Za’miyah] Jenkins was a freshman relatively new out there, so a lot of it, the moment might have been too big for them. But I take my hat off to them. They played a helluva season. That was a good [Mount Paran] team over there. We tried to hang with them as best we can.”
When next season rolls around, Josey should be right back in the thick of a Class AA state title run. But this time, it won’t have Mount Paran to worry about. Due to GHSA’s region reclassification that runs through 2026, while Josey remains in Class AA, Mount Paran will compete with private schools for state championships.
Josey’s new Region 4-AA will consist of Burke County, Butler, Davidson, Glenn Hills, A.R. Johnson, Laney, Technical Career Magnet and Thomson. It will likely vie for region supremacy with Thomson, Butler and Burke County, but should be an early state championship favorite.
That all depends on how the Lady Eagles handle the offseason, though.
Now that the 2023-24 campaign is more than two weeks in the rearview mirror, Chapman says it’s time to turn the page and put the coaching hat back on. But the second-year coach doesn’t want her girls to forget how they felt when that fourth quarter buzzer sounded, touching off Mount Paran’s championship celebration on the Macon Coliseum floor.
“If we use that experience, we could become very dangerous,” Chapman said. “Because now they know what it takes. And as champions, you just can’t take any days off, any plays of. You have to take advantage of every 24 [hours] you get. This whole offseason and summer, we’ll be driven by the failure to win the last game. If you use failure to motivate you in that way, it can help a lot.”
