On Saturday, when the Westside boys basketball team gathered in its main gym to officially celebrate its back-to-back state championship season, complete with a ring ceremony, the sense of pride and satisfaction Coach Jerry Hunter had for the moment was palpable.
Perhaps that’s because, up until mid-February, Hunter didn’t see his Westside bunch as a state title contender.
Yes, despite the fact that his Patriots squad finished on top of the Class AA basketball world two seasons ago, and despite Westside returning almost its entire roster — particularly its big three of Khalon Hudson, Jalex Ewing and AuMauri Tillman — Hunter wasn’t convinced that he had a championship-ready team until Westside’s region tournament game against Thomson on February 16.
“All year long, I saw us as a Sweet 16 team, maybe a Final Four team,” Hunter said after Saturday’s ring ceremony celebration. “But I didn’t see us as a championship team until I saw us play Thomson in the region playoffs. When I saw us play Thomson for four quarters, and the margin of points that we won by, I knew we could win state.”
That night, Westside dismantled a Thomson squad that was one game away from the Class AAA state championship game during the 2021-22 season, 94-65. That victory came nine days after Westside fell 58-51 to Butler — the cross-town rival it beat for its first state crown.
That Butler loss would prove to be the final setback of the Patriots’ season, as Hunter’s team ripped off eight straight wins en route to its second straight state title, and becoming the first back-to-back state champion at the school since the 1987 and 1988 Westside baseball teams, which also got recognized with a championship banner presentation during Saturday’s event.
Saturday’s culmination gave the team, particularly the seniors, and the entire Westside community one more chance to celebrate what last season brought before the graduates go off to college and while everyone else prepares to turn the page onto a new sports season once school starts back on August 7.
Although glory was the end result, it didn’t always look that way, particularly in the offseason and during the first few games of the regular season.
After losing only three games in the entire 2021-22 campaign, last season’s Westside team matched that loss total before Christmas. It started when the realm dropped its first two games of the season against Grovetown and Eagle’s Landing. Then a 77-73 setback to another defending state champion in Augusta Christian not even one month into the season.
Some may have noticed Hunter’s absence on the sidelines during the first couple of games. That was by design.
“We had a horrible strength and conditioning season,” he said. “That’s why I gave myself that self-imposed suspension because the guys weren’t dedicated. Then they showed up that first day of practice like it was okay. But I had to show them right there that a standard is here. Chopping wood in the winter. That was what our standard was this year.”
By the time Westside captured its second straight championship through an 89-81 overtime win over Providence Christian Academy, Hunter was ready to celebrate, calling the second title an even sweeter triumph than the first.
“Doing it all over again, and this year with a lot more adversity than last year, then being able to celebrate with these rings here, it was definitely a beautiful surprise and a blessing from God,” Hunter said. “We know what we’ve been through. We started rough. We celebrated [last year] a bit too long. But we had to love each other and trust each other, and most importantly, we had to forgive each other. I had to forgive them as young men, and finally, once we got over that hump, it was all good from there.”
Internal adversity aside, Hunter said this particular title run was decidedly more difficult than the first.
“Our guys realized that if you’re gonna do it twice, it’s always going to be tougher that second time around, because now everyone’s shooting for you this time,” he said. “That first time, we kind of snuck in there, so opponents didn’t have time to prepare. But this year, when they have a season to prepare for you, and our guys do it anyway, again, hats off to our guys.”
Toward the end of Saturday’s celebration, Westside principal, Dr. Tikki Middleton, alluded to the notion of a three-peat, which, on the surface, may seem improbable, given the fact that more than 80% of the team’s scoring from the last two years has graduated.
But Hunter isn’t necessarily ruling it out.
“Listen, I didn’t know we were going to win state this year until January,” he said. “So you never know. I tell you what — we’re going to work like we want to win it again. You can best believe that. We’ve got some good talent coming back, and I like our chances.”
