By Robert Alfonso Jr. Jonesboro, Ga. — Daniel Maehlman has never been one to campaign for attention. He doesn’t need to. On a game night at Jonesboro High School, his presence does the talking. It carries in a coach’s bark that cuts through the gym, in a standard that never wavers, and in a program that has become synonymous with […]
By Robert Alfonso Jr. High school basketball teams spend months preparing for the postseason. Film sessions. Scouting reports. Travel plans. The quiet belief that everything comes down to the next game. For Upson-Lee’s boys, that next game vanished overnight. Less than 24 hours before the Knights were set to make the 70-mile trip to Cedar Grove for the Class 3A […]
By Robert Alfonso Jr. Savannah, GA — Long before the milestone, before the banners and the streaks, Mel Abrams Jr. understood the assignment on his life. For Abrams, basketball has never been just about the scoreboard. The game is a vehicle — a classroom where young men are shaped, challenged and prepared for the future. The wins, as he’ll tell you, […]
By Robert Alfonso Jr. Tiger, GA — A winter snowstorm paralyzed Northeast Georgia a few weeks ago, which was the only thing keeping two of Class A Division I’s heavyweights on the sideline preparing for something else entirely — a showdown that could shape the Region 8 title race. Weather permitting, Commerce will make the trip through the cold to Rabun […]
By Robert Alfonso Jr. MABLETON, Ga. — The game keeps changing. George Washington never stops changing with it. Schemes evolve. Players evolve. Even coaching styles bend with time. But at Pebblebrook High School, one thing has remained immovable for 15 years under Washington’s watch: the standard. “What excites me still about coaching is just turning these young men into men […]