Warner Robins basketball moving past frustrating 2025-26 season, here’s who is turning heads this offseason

WARNER ROBINS — Warner Robins boys head basketball coach Jamaal Garman knows better than anyone how frustrating the 2025-26 season was.

The offseason optimism didn’t last through the dramatic ups and downs that saw both long winning and losing streaks. They secured hosting rights for the region tournament, but lost their opening game, and thus their home playoff advantage.

But during Thursday’s scrimmages the team, which features many returning players, nor Garman, looked bogged down by yesteryear. In fact, it looked like they were finally embracing the expectations laid out at the beginning of last season.

They played hard and with intensity from the opening tip, getting up and down the floor in transition and playing suffocating defense. Garman said they’ve done that all summer, and they’re finally starting to take ownership as a group.

“They want it to be their team. I have to do less yelling and fussing at them now because they doing it to each other now,” Garman said. “So now it’s turning into their team, which we’ve always wanted it to be. This team can be pretty good, we just got to work on our depth.”

Tyler Harris, who was one of two contenders for the team’s “top dog” last season, has finally embraced the leadership role.

Harris is a versatile player on both ends of the floor, this is the last piece of the puzzle for the rising senior.

“He’s taking the leadership role very, very serious with this bunch,” Garman said. “He’s just determined to do whatever it takes to win. He can do everything; dribble the basketball, he can rebound it, he’s starting to get his little shot going now. He’s going to be the one that has to lead us to where we got to go.”

The complimentary pieces are starting to find their own, too.

Edmund Dantes is a lengthy wing, and “potential” was the best word to describe him last season. He flashed similar versatility to Harris, but was one of the more inconsistent players on the team.

Now, Garman says he’s likely to be a hot name in the middle Georgia area.

“Mentally he’s really, really, really improved. That’s where he really struggled last year as a sophomore,” Garman said. “One little thing would go bad and it would just make him fall down in the dumps. But now [when] one thing goes bad it’ll catapult him to go try to do good the next play…I’m proud of the effort and the intensity that he now plays with. He looks like a different player right now.”

Kam Schmitz was in limbo for much of last season. He never seemed to get comfortable in a role and he suffered a devastating offensive cold streak for a time. But, he’s turned a corner, according to Garman.

“He’s understanding now that it starts with his defense,” Garman said. “He would normally come into the game and think that it would start with his offense, but I’m like, ‘Son, you’re at Warner Robins High School, we start with defense.’ … He gets a lot of tipped basketballs and layups, so [he’s] just got to focus on that.”

The Demons still have roughly a week for team practices and workouts left until the second mandatory GHSA dead week, which starts June 29 and goes through July 5.