Warner Robins, Northside join in on Perry play dates

PERRY, Ga. — In mid-June, Perry High School hosted several schools to play some summer basketball, this week Warner Robins and Northside decided to join the mix.

In last Friday’s play date, fans saw a different crowd as well as some returning teams. Veterans, Perry and Peach County all returned.

Southwest Macon, Westside, Washington County, Warner Robins and Northside were all new additions.

Many of these teams joined in order to give their teams a good test before summer practices end as the school year creeps closer, including Warner Robins head boys basketball coach Jamaal Garman.

“The middle Georgia area has a bunch of good teams that are in here today that’ll play,” he said. “They’re very competitive teams. So I wanted to come play, I wanted to come get some good live action in before the last day of summer. Coming to Perry was a great choice for us.”

Garman’s Demons didn’t come out and play like it was just a summer pick-up game, however. They hustled, played with intensity and competed like it was a regular season game.

“Last year we missed the state playoffs for the first time in like 12 years so they understand the drive and the focus that it takes right now to go harder than we did last year,” Garman said. “[We’re] just putting that work in, being intense while we’re working and understanding there is no tomorrow.”

Northside head boys basketball coach Reggie Thorpe came for similar reasons and is looking to improve on a disappointing finish last year.

“I wanted to make sure we got in some good quality work to end the summer,” he said. “We’ve been playing the whole month of June, but I knew there would be some good quality teams here today. Coach [Mark] Gainous and his program do a real good job so I wanted to come make sure we got in and played some really good competition.”

In their game against Peach County, Northside looked like a different team in each of the 20-minute halves.

In the first, they struggled with turnovers and missed outside shots. In the second, they put together some good drives to the rim and made good passes to stay ahead.

Peach County had a chance to make a comeback in the last few minutes, but Northside held them off to win the game, something Thorpe was glad they got to experience in a low-stakes environment.

“It’s great experience for the kids to understand in-game situations,” he said. “Having to play defense, or if the games get down to a late shot and we’re up by three we might could foul and send the guys to the free throw line instead of them getting a shot off. Just those types of things to get to work on during the summer that you really don’t get every game, but it was good to get that in this game.”

Perry High School plans to host more play dates in July.

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