In his 19 years as Bryan County girls’ basketball coach, Mario Mincey has had 14 players sign to play college basketball.
But it is doubtful that any have been less likely than Laney Sehr, who put pen to paper and became a member of the Georgia Southern East basketball program last Thursday. She joined teammate Jasmine Mikell, who signed with Auburn-Montgomery, in the signing ceremonies in the school’s media center.
Sehr’s signing with the Golden Eagles is a testament to Mincey’s doggedness in promoting the players and his belief in their potential, even when they don’t recognize it themselves.
This is not to say Sehr is bereft of talent, but it’s what she had to overcome to reach this state in her career.
In Sehr’s case, it is a testament to hard work, perseverance, and being a high character person who is committed to doing the right thing on and off the court.
This past season, Sehr started every game for a 21-6 team that advanced to the Sweet 16 after playing in the Region 3A-DII championship game. She earned All-Region honors while averaging 8.7 points per game along with 2.7 steals and 2.1 assists.
Not mind-blowing numbers, but she was far from being second banana on a team led by Mikell, lockdown defender Liz Harvey and talented sophomore post player Layla Mincey.
At the end of the day, there weren’t a lot of points to go around, but Sehr made the most of her opportunities. It was her ability to shoot, especially the 3-pointer, that caught the attention of Georgia Southern East coach John Himes, who offered Sehr after a workout.
Sehr made 39 percent of her 3-point attempts, Mincey said, and was the top long-range shooter in the region.
However, the most impressive thing about Sehr was her perseverance and hard work to overcome a potentially career-ending knee injury she suffered early in her sophomore season. She missed the rest of that year and all of her junior season.
Last summer, when asked about the prospects for the upcoming season, Mincey mentioned Sehr as one of his starters, and he never wavered.
“I’ve got a lot of confidence in Laney,” Mincey said at the time. “She’s worked hard to overcome a bad injury that would have caused a lot of kids to quit.”
Instead of letting her coast and just feel good about being back on the court, Mincey said he and his staff challenged Sehr to step up and be one of the team’s starters and leaders. She answered the call.
“This means a lot,” Sehr said of signing with the Golden Eagles. “The hardest thing about rehabbing was not being with my teammates every day.
“Back in November, I wasn’t thinking about getting the chance to play in college,” Sehr said. “But everyone kept motivating me, pushing me to be the best I could be. My teammates and coaches encouraged me, and that meant a lot.”
Mincey will have an extremely young team this upcoming season—there won’t be a senior on the team—and Sehr’s opportunity can serve as an excellent motivational tool for those young players.
“It shows that anybody can do it if you put your heart and effort into it,” said Harvey, who was Sehr’s teammate for four years. “You just have to get out there and do it. Laney had a bad injury, but she worked so hard to overcome it.
“She was a good teammate, a leader, and her success is a great example for young players.”
Harvey, along with Camryn Parker, will also be attending Georgia Southern East to play softball. East is now the state’s newest four-year school after the merger of the former East Georgia State College, a two-year school, with Georgia Southern.
“I told Laney she had to trust the process,” Mincey said. “She didn’t have to understand the process, just trust it. She trusted the process and now she’s getting the opportunity to play college basketball.”
The Golden Eagles will be competing at the NAIA level and have already been accepted as a member of the 14-team Continental Athletic Conference.
“What she brings to us is her passing, her will, her vision, and her power,” Himes said. “Plus, she’s a great shooter.
“I watched her shoot the ball and she’s one of the best (3-point) shooters I’ve seen in a long time. If she gets to her spot, it’s going in. After watching her this year I said I need her for our program because I’m losing my best shooter.”
