The Greene County boys basketball team suffered a disappointing end to its 2024-25 season.
McIntosh County Academy defeated the Tigers 49-41 in the Final Four of the Class A Division II state tournament. They were one win shy of competing for a state championship after leading for most of the game.
Greene still had a successful season, though. The Tigers went 22-8 and won a region title, but lost a strong senior class, which featured contributors such as Jesse Broadus, RJ Monford, Ryder Esbach, and Laryous Burt.
Greene started workouts a few weeks ago with a fresh start. The focus this summer is to keep grinding and gel as a unit. Additionally, head coach Mark Wright wants some of the returning players to step up as leaders.
“We’re trying to find some leadership on the team since we were heavily loaded with seniors, having those five guys who I pretty much started with when I first came here when they were sophomores,” Wright said. “Losing those guys is a significant blow. So, now we’re trying to find new leadership within the team. The talent is definitely there. It’s just about accountability and having these guys come in and govern themselves after the initial request to get people in the gym. So, that’s the new challenge right now.”
Returning players such as Braylen Hurt, Gavin Brown, and Corey Brown were key contributors on last year’s playoff run. They’ll have to guide a young and inexperienced group heading into the 2025-26 season.
Wright spoke highly of those three, calling them the “nucleus” of next year’s team.
“That’s essentially my nucleus of who I hope will lead the program this upcoming season,” Wright said. “Those three guys have a monumental amount of experience with this program, how I’ve run it, and to what extent we believe we can put ourselves right back in that same situation, just with a different group and dynamic.”
The fourth-year head coach believes Hurt and the Brown brothers can make a difference.
Wright also said that the team isn’t participating in many camps, but is getting back to the fundamentals.
“So, we have three morning workouts at 10,” Wright said. “We get up anywhere between 800 to 1,200 shots up. After that, they return at 4 p.m. and work on plyometrics, functional training, explosion drills, and lateral movements, all aimed at enhancing and improving their bodies to prepare for the upcoming season. It’s a lot of stretching exercises as well. And then at 7 p.m., they come back in and they get up and down with other teammates. Or just an open run. So, they work out three times a day, six days a week. And that’s pretty much our functional foundation for the summer.”
Wright has the Tigers in the gym multiple times a day, with the purpose of teaching the younger kids how he operates. He knows that this returning group is talented, but they also need time to adjust to the varsity level.
“We’re not looking to really expose what we’re trying to accomplish for the next season because we feel pretty confident with the group that we have back, the experienced group that we have,” Wright said. “While they’re young, they’re also experienced. A lot of those key guys were able to log some serious minutes for us.”