Sandy Creek’s boys and girls basketball teams had very successful years last year with the boys making the AAAA final four and the girls winning their first-ever region championship. Both teams would like to repeat those achievements this year, but they will be making those attempts under new head coaches and with rosters that look different from a year ago.

The boys, now under coach Dwayne White, graduated nine seniors from last year’s team and saw their most experienced junior move at the end of last season. Only three members of this year’s team dressed for varsity last year and the majority of the team only has junior varsity experience. They will be tested early this year but White feels this team has the talent to put together a strong season.

One of the strengths that the Patriots have is quickness and White hopes to couple that speed with amazing versatility. He hopes to establish a program where many of the players on the floor can play more than one position, creating extra depth and forcing opponents to prepare for any possibility.

“We want to switch it up a lot on defense and do the opposite of what teams want us to do,” White said. “On offense, we want to spread the ball out and create a lot of mismatches.”

The Patriots started the season with a two point win over Luella. Josh Houston, Phillip Woo and Gavin Montgomery each scored 10 points in the win and White saw a lot of balance from his team. They will have two big games over the next two weeks, hosting Chapel Hill next Tuesday and traveling to Lithia Springs on Nov. 29.

The Lady Patriots are now coached by Tara Ware as former coach Jim Waller has taken over the Landmark Lady War Eagle program. Ware comes to Sandy Creek from Rome High School and is trying to establish good fundamentals on offense and defense. The Lady Patriots have two seniors on squad, guard Morganne Campbell and center Vanessa Simon, but juniors Jenna Jackson and Lynsey Paschal and sophomore Olympia Haney have all had significant playing time on the varsity squad in the past. With six juniors and three sophomores on the team, the Lady Patriots should be set for the future but winning big this year would also be nice and by playing hard on defense and smart on offense, the sky is the limit.

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