Published: March 03, 2006 09:32 am      

Season over for Red Devil basketball

Program's future looks bright

They were a team that many had counted out before the 2005-2006 season ever started. And after completing the previous two seasons with a combined record of 8-45 it was easy to see why.

This year, though, the Jackson High School Red Devils’ varsity basketball team was out to prove they were for real.

And they did, but only when it was too late.

After opening the season with seven consecutive non-region losses, many of the Red Devils’ players began to brace themselves for what was looking to be another long and embarrassing season. And that was before they opened play in the toughest AA basketball region in the state.

But, then came the New Year.

Call it a New Year’s resolution, but when the Red Devils hit the road on January 3 to play the second-ranked team in the state -the Greenville Patriots- they looked like a different team. A new-found confidence was instilled in the minds of the players and coaches and it showed as Jackson nearly pulled off the upset.

After the game in Greenville, Jackson proved that they were going to be a team to contend with in the region for the remainder of the season. Night in and night out Jackson played some of its best games, but for only three quarters. Jackson finally put together four quarters of play toward the end of the regular season, but that still wasn’t enough as three of the team’s final six games were forced to overtime.

After a 73-56 senior night victory against number one seed Macon County on January 31, the Red Devils clinched a spot in the region tournament for the first time in three seasons. Coming into their first round region tournament game against the Tri-County Eagles last Tuesday, Jackson’s regular season record of 5-20 wasn’t anything for the Eagles to fear. But, the performance the team displayed in the final month of regular season play was.

The Red Devils were looking to avenge a 76-49 loss they suffered to the Eagles in December, but the team knew it was going to be a steep hill to climb if they were to advance to the quarterfinals of the region tournament. As they’ve done for the past 10-12 games the Red Devils jumped out to an early lead, but couldn’t hold on in the second half. Three times the Red Devils cut the Eagles’ lead down to five points in the final quarter, but couldn’t get any closer as Tri-County continued to show everyone how great they could shoot from outside.

The Eagles put the nail in the Red Devils’ coffin after they connected on a late three-point basket to seal the 68-56 victory. With the loss, Jackson’s season and any hopes of a region championship ended.

The Red Devils could have easily finished the season above .500, but late game problems again gave the Red Devils their third consecutive 20 loss season -twenty one to be exact.

But fans shouldn’t give up hope just yet because as strange as it may sound, there is a promising future for this program.

In the first half of this season the Red Devils were outscored by an average of nine points per game. However, in the Red Devils’ second half turnaround they outscored their opponents by two points.

“Our defense finally began to step up, which allowed us to have more uncontested shots,” described Head Coach Vincent Rosser when asked about the team’s turnaround in the second half of the season.

Indeed, the Red Devils’ defense made its presence felt, but there were only so many points it could create for the offense. It’s been a known fact that the team was in desperate need of a dominant guard all season and even though junior Keldric Appling filled the spot at the mid-way point, Rosser still feels like that is what’s holding the team back.

“Keldric did a great job for us, but he’s a scorer,” said Rosser. “What we need is a guard who has great knowledge and vision for the game and who’s not looking to score a lot of points, but instead feed Keldric and the rest of the offense.

Should the Red Devils find this vital player, whether it’s somebody already on the team or one of the hundreds of talented players walking the halls at JHS who for some reason has decided not to play, Jackson could contend well regardless of their upcoming move to AAA.

For Rosser, the 2006-2007 team will be his first senior class at Jackson.

“When I first came here we somehow lost an entire sophomore class,” said Rosser. “All we had were seniors and freshmen, but next year I’ll have my first senior group and I believe after the way we came around this season we can do very well.”

Rosser will have a nice blend of players from all classes to mix with those seniors, too, including a very good J.V. program that had a winning season under Coach Kevin Patterson.

“K.P. did a great job this season,” said Rosser. “He really matured as a coach, but the one thing I was most impressed with is how he stressed the academics to these guys. This was the first year since I’ve been here that we didn’t lose anyone, J.V. or varsity, due to eligibility.”

Rosser is also excited about the talent coming up from Henderson Middle School.

“Those guys are good,” said Rosser. “They should expect to come in and compete for a starting job.”

Rosser has already had the luxury of seeing some of the Tigers’ talent at the varsity level in last Summer’s workouts, but don’t expect the Red Devils to stray too far away from Jackson this Summer.

“Last Summer we went to camps at Mercer and Dutchtown,” said Rosser. “This Summer we are going to stay at home and work on fundamentals.”

The Red Devils finished the 2005-2006 season 5-21 and fourth on the East side of Region 4AA.