The Columbus High School boys and girls basketball teams both started summer workouts Wednesday. After both teams reached the MHSAA Class 5A playoffs last year, they are both extremely excited to get back on the court to work toward a new season.
For the girls team, the 2020-2021 season was an adventure, especially with keeping players eligible and multiple quarantine periods because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their adventure ended in the quarterfinals, where the Falcons bowed out to eventual state runner-up Holmes County Central.
“I think that the way we lost, knowing that we should have won the game, is motivating them and propelling them to go a little bit farther next year,” coach Yvonne Hairston said.
The Falcons won the state championship in 2020 and were picked to repeat in 2021, but the pandemic really hamstrung Columbus. The team was not able to practice in the summer, and in the fall, students participating in virtual learning were not allowed to join the team. The team was also quarantined three times throughout the season, which really took a physical and mental toll, forcing the Falcons to play five games in seven days to catch up with the league schedule. But in the 2021-2022 season, the Falcons are going to leave all of that in the past.
“This year, hopefully we can get everybody’s shots, everybody’s immunization done, and have a successful year,” Hairston said. “We’re just trying to catch everybody up, because we did so much last year with the younger kids.”
The Falcons will also be tasked with replacing point guard DJ Jackson, who was a real leader for Columbus and a major source of offense. Hairston’s team will have three players vying for the chance to start at point guard.
Despite that, Columbus will be an experienced team led by six seniors who have gone deep in the playoffs twice. The Falcons have 20 games scheduled over the summer to get valuable experience for a team with some young players that missed a lot of basketball in 2020.
Over on the boys side, the Falcons are coming off of a second-round loss to Lake Cormorant, the Class 5A runner-up. The boys team was also affected in many of the same ways by the coronavirus pandemic. With Columbus on a hybrid schedule, the students would only go to school two days a week, making it difficult for some players to get to practice on the other days.
“Some days I’d have a practice planned out, and we wouldn’t have enough guys to execute a practice,” boys coach Phillip Morris said.
Morris also said that some of his players were ruled ineligible, so he was able to play some of his younger, more inexperienced players, and the experience of playing major minutes in a playoff run really helped them improve. Like the girls team, the Falcons were unable to practice during the summer because of the pandemic, so getting the underclassmen valuable minutes was even more important and will be incredibly useful for the 2021-2022 season.
“One thing I learned this year, there’s always stuff you gotta keep in mind,” Morris said. “Whether it’s an injury or whatever, you gotta think, ‘Next man up.’”
Morris said that the biggest area that he’s looking to improve during the offseason is the play of his bigs. The Falcons will be a very guard-oriented team, but they have some young players with size, just not quite enough experience, so Morris is expecting to get them up to speed during the summer months.
Morris says he expects his guards to shoot very well this year, saying his team might shoot from the perimeter better than the Falcons did when they won the state championship back in 2016. The coach said he expects players including Willie Young, Jaquarius Williams and Jakele Phillips to take a big step forward this year.
“(Phillips) is very athletic, a great shooter, can handle the ball and can do a little bit of everything, so I think he’s gonna be good for us,” Morris said.
While both teams shined at times in 2020 despite the hardships of the pandemic and the trials it brought with it, the Falcons are expected to make strides this offseason and challenge for a title this winter.
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