Joe Whitfield is the sports editor for the Albany Herald. He graduated from the Henry Grady School of Journalism at the University of Georgia. He is an avid Georgia Bulldog fan and passionate about local sports in Albany. He has two daughters and seven grandchildren.
When the first basketball bounces across the hardwood floor inside Westover High School's new gymnasium this fall, it will signal much more than the opening of a new building.
Before the wins come, before the playoffs are discussed and before the bright lights of Friday night return, football teams are built in the quiet weeks of summer.
For about six minutes Friday afternoon, Lee County looked every bit like the fast, physical basketball team head coach Kirven Davis hopes it will become.
For 41 summers, Lea Henry has watched generations of Southwest Georgia children walk into the gym with a basketball in their hands and leave with something much more.