It’s been a busy and productive spring and summer for Bryan County’s girls basketball players, especially for rising senior point guard Jasmine Mikell and rising sophomore post player Layla Mincey.
Both have been playing in school team games and on the AAU circuit where they have been drawing the attention of college coaches. As a result of this exposure both have picked up scholarship offers, according to Coach Mario Mincey.
Mikell has started every game for the Redskins for three years and has developed into one of the finest all-around guards to play for Mincey in his 18 years at Bryan County so her getting offered does not come as a surprise.
Parkland College, a two-year school located in Champaign-Urbana, Ill., has extended an offer to Mikell. This, Mincey anticipates, will be the first of several to come for Mikell who is an excellent defender who has also developed into a prolific scorer.
Bryan County’s team recently participated in a camp at Central Georgia Technical College where it had an opportunity to compete against several Titans players and recruits.
The 5-foot-8 Mincey, coming off a freshman season in which was part of a post players tandem of seniors Ashanti Brown and Soniya Whitaker while earning second team all-region honors, made a deep impression on Central coach John Gordon who extended an offer before the Redskins left Macon.
“It was totally unexpected,” said Mincey of the offer to Layla, who is also his daughter. “He said he knew she was just coming off her freshman year but he wanted to be among the first to get his foot in the door.
“He’s also interested in Jasmine,” said Mincey of Gordon, who played his high school basketball at Beach High School in Savannah. He played collegiately at Fort Valley State.
Summer showdowns
It’s been a busy, but good, summer for his team, Mincey said.
Several players are involved with AAU teams and have been playing on weekends since April. Team activities kicked off with a bang in early June highlighted by the 18th Annual Summer Jam at Bryan County High School where the Redskins played seven games in two days.
“We went 5-2 in our tournament,” Mincey said. “After that we did well at Statesboro where we faced a lot of good stiff competition. We were 2-1 at a camp at Coastal Georgia College and at a camp at Camden County High School.
“The teams we played at Coastal Georgia and Camden County were all from Florida and they were pretty good,” Mincey said. “We were 4-1 against the Florida teams. We’ve played a lot of good competition this summer and played a lot of young kids.”
Mincey had a talented group of freshmen last year and has a good crop of incoming freshmen; he has played them extensively this summer, he said.
“They’ve played against a lot of good players and they’ve worked out against college players at Coastal Georgia and Central Georgia,” Mincey said. “When they start playing high school ball this winter they won’t be intimidated.”
Future plans
This weekend Layla Mincey will be traveling to Louisville, Ky., with her AAU team for a tournament which staggers the imagination if you are not familiar with AAU basketball and summer tournaments.
The occasion, Mario said, will be the annual Run 4 The Roses Classic which will be held at the Louisville Exposition Center July 10-12 and the numbers, per the event’s website, bear mentioning: 88 courts, 2,910 teams from 15 countries, 2,037 college coaches have registered for the tournament which is NCAA sanctioned with play beginning each day at 8 a.m. and going to midnight.
As a prelude to the tournament Savannah native Flau-Jae Johnson, who is an All-America at LSU and an emerging rap star, will have a concert at Louisville’s Freedom Hall on Thursday night.
“We just left a tournament in Atlanta,” Mario Mincey said. “Now we’re going to Kentucky and when we get back, we’ll play at least three more games. The tournament in Kentucky is unbelievable. This is the third year Layla has played for FVC which is one of the top (AAU) organizations in the country.
“I’m never really resting,” Mincey said. “We played in (AAU) tournaments in April and May. I take my team to tournaments and camps in June and then in July I take my child and Jasmine to play. They both benefit from this exposure.”
Mike Brown is a sports correspondent with the Bryan County News.
