BACK ON THEIR GRIND: The TCC Yellow Jackets basketball team smiles after making it to the championship at the Santa Fe Invitational Team Camp.

THOMASVILLE — Thomas County Central’s boys basketball team has been active this season, attending several camps such as Florida State’s basketball camp. Recently, the Yellow Jackets attended the Santa Fe Invitational team camp in Alachua, Florida.

At the Santa Fe camp, Central performed well and made it to the championship game, where they fell short. The Yellow Jackets need all the practice and camps they can get as they are introducing a large number of new faces in new roles. Central lost an incredible amount of production to graduation. In fact, the team only had one player this summer with camp experience.

Several young players will have to step up to take over for graduated seniors. Sophomore point guard Quincy Anderson, who played significant minutes as a freshman, will be taking on a larger role to replace some production, as well as junior guard Chris Williams, who is returning from a wrist injury and has looked good in camp.

However, the Yellow Jackets will be looking to Jalan Wingfield to take a significant leadership role within the team.

“When we start talking about all-team, everything starts with Jalan Wingfield, the big sophomore,” said Central head basketball coach Juwan Hopkins “He got freshman of the year for Georgia 6A, so we’ve got big plans for him and hopefully he can step up and be our leader.”

Young Yellow Jackets will have to work hard to fill the shoes of the seniors. Many of them will go from playing eight to nine minutes a game to 22 or 25. For Hopkins, he believes their biggest challenge is their health and inexperience.

“I think the biggest challenge for one is just us being healthy. My first two years here our top player started the season off with injuries and he was not there,” Hopkins said. “So, it kind of put us behind the ball. So, hopefully this year we will start seeing everybody healthy and that’s going to be a big key for us. Outside of health it’s just inexperience. How quickly the guys can get comfortable playing these big minutes.”