Bryan County’s girls’ basketball team is on an unparalleled run of success: eight 20-win or more seasons in the last nine years--with a disclaimer for 2021 (9-15) which was COVID interrupted.
That run is a testament to the program Coach Mario Mincey has built where success is not a sometimes thing but now the expectation. Actually, the nine-win season may have been one of Mincey’s better coaching jobs as the Redskins were coming off a 22-6 season with the starting lineup returning.
However, COVID disrupted everything with students given the option of attending school or taking classes online. The Bryan County Board of Education had a policy that if a student chose online learning, they would not be eligible for extracurricular activities. Four potential starters chose the online option and thus couldn’t play.
Other than that blip it has been nothing but sunshine and blue skies for the Redskins under Mincey who began his 19th season Wednesday night when they opened up against Toombs County.
The game with Toombs was the first of three for the Redskins this week as they will host Wayne County at 6 p.m. Friday and follow up with a game against Harlem at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday.
Bryan County was ranked No. 4 in Class A-DII in last year’s final AJC rankings and started this season ranked 10th in the pre-season poll. Region mates Screven starts out at No. 5 and Metter is No. 8.
Coach Jason Napier’s boys team, coming off an outstanding season in which it went 22-9 and advanced to the Elite Eight, also opened this week with games against Toombs and Wayne County.
The boys lost players heavily to graduation and will be rebuilding around seniors Ger’bravion Collins, Darius Edwards and Cayden Rawls. The roster shows three seniors, one junior, seven sophomores and six freshmen.
After this week both teams will be idle until Saturday Nov. 22 when South Effingham pays a visit.
Since getting off to a 1-22 start in his first year Mincey’s teams have been a model of consistency as he enters the season with a school record 321 wins for boys or girls coaches.
This year’s team will be led by senior point guard Jasmine Mikell who has started every game in her career and currently has eight scholarship offers on the table and 5-foot-11 sophomore Layla Mincey who is also attracting the attention of college coaches. She has three offers in what is expected to be the first of many.
Mikell is one of six seniors on the roster including defensive standout Liz Harvey who also has been a regular presence on the floor since her freshman season. The other seniors are Briana Crawford, Laney Sehr, McKinely Walker and Erianna Morgan.
Crawford is an excellent athlete who has started off and on since her sophomore year and Sehr is a testament to grit and toughness. Sehr missed her sophomore season with a knee injury which continued to plague her last year and she is an inspiration to her teammates.
Tamera Anderson is the lone junior on the team and after her comes a promising group of freshmen and sophomores whose development is going to be the key to the Redskins success once they get into region play.
“I think we’ll be fine once we get our six freshmen in the rotation,” Mincey said. “We’ll be okay. I’m going to play a lot of kids early and fine tune to get ready for January and region play.
“Our seniors are a solid group,” Mincey said. “We’ve got Jas and Liz who started last year and Briana and Laney have been with me for a while. They’re going to play hard and they understand the process.”
The Redskins played Statesboro last Friday in a scrimmage game called after three quarters in order to let junior varsity players get in a quarter of action. The Blue Devils wound up with a 35-25 lead but the Redskins were up 20-19 at the half with Mincey playing mostly freshmen in the third.
Three freshmen in particular, 5-11 Mckenzie Smith, 5-8 Zariah Reddick and 5-5 Tristen Glover looked ready to contribute right away.
“McKenzie has good size,” Mincey said. “I’ve known her since she was a small kid. I taught her Mom. Zariah is going to be ready. The two of them are going to blossom and Tristen is going to surprise some people.”
Despite the spate of recent success Mincey has never forgotten his humble beginnings. The specter of that 1-22 season still lingers as a constant reminder how things can go sour. It is more of a driving force than two school record 26-win seasons (2024, 2019).