Basketball season is here and South Jones basketball head coaches Casey Price and Sherri Cooley believe while their teams might be young, they still will be able to make a run towards winning the Region 5-4A crown.

Lady Braves

Cooley knows the Lady Braves will be young, but they will have some experience on the court. “Although we are young, I will have some experience back from last year’s team,” she said. “We are looking to run more, and we are looking to play pressure man-to-man defense.”

Cooley will be relying on Keoshya Wilson, the leading scorer and rebounder from last year’s team, Jasmine Dale, Makayla Burks, and Khadejah Buxton to be the back bone of her team.

Cooley believes even with Wayne County and West Jones departing Region 5-4A, the league will still be pretty tough.“Quitman is always a tough team,” said Cooley. “Of course Northeast Lauderdale made it to Jackson last year. Laurel has a new coach, and I’m sure she will have a new system there. And you can’t ever count Northeast Jones out.”

Cooley knows having a true point guard handling the ball will be a key factor in this year’s team. “We didn’t do a good job handling the ball last season,” she said. “This year I believe with our point guard back in Buxton we’ll be able to handle the press better.”

The Lady Braves open up their season Saturday at 4 p.m. in the Taylorsville Classic against Mendenhall.

Braves

Braves head coach Casey Price knows in order for his team to succeed for the 2009-2010 campaign, the Braves must be self-discipline and remain healthy. “We also need to keep our mind right because they could lose at any point during the season, so we just need to stay focused.”

Price is still looking for leadership from his guys. “We are still looking for someone to step up and take control of this team by being a leader,” he said. “We have some experience coming back from last year’s team, but we just don’t have the leadership.”

Price believes there will be three key factors in this years team. “We are going to have to communicate. We will have to hustle,” he said. “The last thing is we have to believe on ourselves. If we do those things, I believe we will be OK.”

The Braves open up the season at home Nov. 10 against Petal.