Northside Lady Eagles basketball begins a new era

WARNER ROBINS — The Northside Lady Eagles basketball team along with several others, were at Warner Robins High School on Monday and Tuesday to take part in scrimmages.

This summer marks a new era for Northside, as ChoRhonda Harris and her husband, Buck Harris, have taken over the girls and boys basketball programs respectively.

While Tuesday’s scrimmage was a good time to evaluate players, Harris’s number one concern is changing the culture for the better.

“One, you gotta change the culture. Basketball’s gotta be important with the girls,” Harris said on the steps to building up the program. “Two, you gotta create a winning mentality, and pride in who they are, and what we do at Northside and to do things the right way. So, we figure all that other stuff out, and doing things the right way from the beginning, the other stuff will follow.”

The Lady Eagles are young, and that was painfully evident on Tuesday.

Turnovers were rampant, and it was hard to get anything going offensively.

Two bright spots, though, are Justice Lester and Jazmyn Brown.

Lester and Brown are some of Houston County’s toughest perimeter defenders. What they lack in size they make up for with energy.

Neither were offensive creators last year and were at their best leaking in transition to get behind the defense for a layup. So while they certainly can lead the defensive effort, offense may come slow for the Lady Eagles.

Those are just a couple of players to watch, and Harris has already noticed others.

“Taylor Johnson…she works really, really hard,” Harris said. “Big body, she’s first in sprints…she should have a good year this year. We gotta find her more in the paint. Then Justice Lester, she works really hard. She got a motor on her. She just plays hard the entire time.”

UP NEXT

The Lady Eagles have a while before they’re chasing championships, but if the different air and smiles at the scrimmage were evident of what’s to come, Northside basketball fans have a lot to look forward to.