Terrell County girls aim for school’s first title since 2005

DAWSON — Sometimes the greatest setup for success comes after a huge setback. Such is the case for the Terrell County girls basketball team who turned a devastating loss in the semifinals of the state tournament last year into a brilliant run through their region and into the Class A public school state championship game this year.

Head coach Tammye Jenkins-Ware said when she thought about what they had accomplished with a roster that included just three upperclassmen and the fact that her entire starting lineup would be returning the following season, she knew they were in position to do something special. She knew they would have an opportunity to bring the school its first girls basketball title since 2005.

Terrell County will play unbeaten Turner County today at 3 p.m. in the Georgia High School Association Class A public school state championship game at the Macon Coliseum.

Jenkins-Ware said that she sees similarities between this year’s team and that championship squad.

“The ‘05 team and this team has a lot of role players and I think they’re pretty comfortable with their roles,” she said. “I think back to the ‘05 team and we had the penetrator, we had the shooter, we had a person and her strength was rebounding, and it’s very similar to this team.”

While Jenkins-Ware realized the potential the team had, Timarius Whiting and Brittany Williams — the team’s seniors — realized exactly what it took to bring their dream of winning a title into fruition — hard work.

“[Last year’s loss was] devastating because I know we could’ve played better than what we did,” Williams said. “I think we’re better prepared for this now than we were last year and I’m glad for the outcome from last year because it pushed us harder.”

Whiting noted that as challenging as it is, the senior members of the team felt the added responsibility of providing the leadership that they did not have last year.

“It most definitely adds a challenge to be a leader because we’ve got all these young ‘uns, it pushes us to be leaders,” Whiting said. “I knew I had to be a leader this year because last year, we didn’t have a leader to teach us what to do and what not to do. Me, Brittany and Jada [Spencer] decided we might as well be leaders to teach these others how to play and not have attitudes and work hard at practice and try to make it to Macon.”

The Lady Greenwave came into this season with a hunger to not just make it back to the state tournament but win it all. Along the way, they built a 16-0 region record, thanks in large part to a tough non-conference schedule. Earlier this season, Terrell faced teams several classes bigger including Westover, Lee County and Cairo and were able to win two of the three. Whiting said this did wonders for the team’s confidence.

“That built our confidence way up,” Whiting said. “Last year we didn’t think we’d beat Westover or Lee County. Our confidence was just built up even more.”

In just one season, the Lady Greenwave went from the young, free-spirited underdogs to one of the top dogs. Jenkins-Ware said her team still leaves it all on the court as though they’re the underdogs, and she’s hoping they do so Thursday while pulling from the experiences they’ve had in the last 12 months.

“I really believe the experience from last…that experience and the exposure to different scenarios, has helped us stay semi-focused and stay semi-calm in the last few games we’ve played and hopefully for Thursday’s game as well.”