When the month began, the Putnam County War Eagles’ basketball team “hit the ground running” this summer.
After a few practices at home in Eatonton, the team traveled to Atlanta to attend a camp at the Georgia Tech campus, where the War Eagles played some of the best competition attending.
“Man, we hit the ground running this summer. We practiced the first two days after school ended and got two good practices before the official dead week,” Putnam County head coach LaPatrick Marshall said.
“We’re in a summer league at Eagles Landing Christian on Mondays and Wednesdays. We’ve even got JV playing. We then went to Georgia Tech and went 1-1. We should’ve won the game we lost. We let it slip away at the end, but we won the tougher game, which I thought we’d lose. I was super proud of my guys.”
Last month, the War Eagles graduated only two seniors – leading scorer Landon Bonner and role player Messiah Walker. The team returns a strong core of guys, including Jeremy Banks, J’mari Greene, and Jaylin Harper.
Marshall said he’s excited to see how these players and others improve during the summer. The Putnam County coach is high on Harper, a rising senior who made a name for himself last year as a 5-foot-10 shooting guard.
“Man, Jaylin [Harper] came alive last year. He was our third-leading scorer in the toughest region in the state,” Marshall said. “He didn’t meet his expectations, but he’s having a great summer so far.”
Marshall also believes Banks and Greene will step up this summer and take on a more leadership-type role.
“All these guys (Banks, Harper, and Greene) have been playing together for a while,” Marshall said. “Last year was their first year playing together at the varsity level, and there were some growing pains. “But that’s what this summer is all about: getting rid of those issues and working to fix all these issues this month by going to all these camps. We are expecting big things this season, man. We’ve got a good young core coming back.”
Putnam also returns a strong supporting cast, including Tamaud Woodson, Kayden Solomon, Shamar Mcclendon, and Koleman Foster. Marshall also expects these players to take the “next step” this summer.
Also, Putnam County is moving down from Class AA to Class A Division I for the coming season, which Marshall believes is a positive. His team has played in the same region the past few years as three-time defending state champions Westside-Augusta, among other Class AA basketball powerhouses such as Butler and Thomson.
“Moving down to single-A, because we were very competitive in double-AA, the expectation for us is to go out, play good ball, and see how far we can take this thing,” Marshall said. “We don’t want to get double-digit wins, which is not our goal anymore. We want to see how far we can go in the state playoffs. “We want to accept the expectations we put on ourselves and meet those goals. That’s what we’re working on this summer.”
The War Eagles will finish the month at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp this week and then attend a few others, including at Georgia Southern University, before taking July off to rest up.