Coach Jordan Hice and the Bobcats had a busy June as scrimmages dominated their summer.
Gilmer High was on the court following June’s opening week in which no activities were permitted. The Cats hit the ground running with 11 combined games at North Murray, Towns County and Kennesaw State University.
“We picked up some extra games at Kennesaw State because they wanted to watch (rising junior) Jackson (McVey) play,” Hice said. “Then at Towns they were doing Thursdays, so I went over there every Thursday. That was an extra camp that we added, so that’s 10 or 11 more games that we normally don’t play.”
GHS played for a region title last year and ended up hosting a first round state tournament game. The Bobcats lost some dependable, experienced seniors, but still return all-region players McVey, Ryder Wofford and Keegen Bryant, as well as others who received plenty of court time last year.
“In June, we worked a lot on the things we implemented last year, and we also implemented a few different things to see how it would work,” Hice noted.
“We started off a little slow, because we have a lot of football players this year. I think eight are playing football, and that’s a large number compared to what we normally have. So we had a lot of players going between sports. We have three seniors who decided to play. So, trying to juggle double sports, they were a little rusty. But as the summer went on, in that second week, they started to get their basketball legs back.”
Practices were scarce during June as games took up the Bobcats’ time. Newly implemented schemes were tested on the court versus opponents immediately.
“We put in a few things in our offense, and I liked how that worked. Our defense wasn’t bad, and working on defense is always a key,” Hice said. “We pressed a little bit, but not a ton. We really wanted to get the guys to build camaraderie and trust each other. That was a big part of the summer.”
Over the three weeks the Bobcats played 34 scrimmages. Aside from making two more trips to Towns, the Bobcats attended camps at Georgia College and the University of North Georgia. GHS played teams across all classifications and faced the largest schools at KSU.
“A big thing we worked on was five in five out (substitution pattern) in most games to see how everyone fits together in different rotations,” Hice said. “A big thing about each summer is finding how each player’s skill set is going to help with what we need to do. We played two Atlanta schools at Kennesaw State, and those games were probably our biggest losses. We were trying to play as many players as we could. Overall, we were probably above .500 for the summer.”
No further camps or scrimmages are scheduled, and the Bobcats will return to the court for preseason practices in the fall.