THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central’s boys basketball team will be coming into this season in a better position than they have in a while. For the last three years, the Yellow Jackets have been plagued by the injury bug, putting them behind the eight ball. But this year, all but one player on Central’s roster is entering this season healthy.

“We’re feeling pretty good. We get a couple guys back from injury so we’re excited about that,” said head coach Juwan Hopkins. “My main issue coming in this season was just having everybody healthy. The last three seasons we’ve started out the season without a full roster.”

Fans can expect a bit of a different look for The Yellow Jackets this season. It’s been a long time since Central made the playoffs and Hopkins attributed a lack of winning to his team’s “inability to close games last year”. Last season, the Yellow Jackets lost seven games by ten points or less.

“I think we’re going to be a lot more capable of closing games and sustaining leads this year. We should have a lot of depth to help out with that,” Hopkins said. “You’re going to see a very very exciting team. We’re going to be competitive, on the defensive end we’ll be very aggressive, offensively we’re going to be fast-paced, pushing the tempo. Overall, you’re just going to see good basketball. We have a good group of kids. They’ve been in the system a couple of years now, they’ve gotten used to the expectations, they understand what they’re supposed to do. I think they’ll be able to play a little bit quickly this year.”

This team has the benefit of many solid returners. This Central squad features six seniors, including last year’s leader in rebounds and assists Charlie Dunbar IV, and steals leader Decameron Duncan. Also returning is the Yellow Jackets leading scorer from last season junior Colby Mullinax.

A new face will be joining the fray in Eric Love, a Valdosta High School transfer. Love played basketball for Thomas County in middle school before transferring to Valdosta for his ninth and tenth-grade seasons. He has now rejoined the Yellow Jackets and should prove to be very valuable this season.

“He wanted to come back home and play with the guys he grew up playing rec ball and everything with,” Hopkins said. “He fits in well with us. Everybody is excited about him.”

Last season, with the Wildcats, Love led Valdosta with 10.3 points per game, 2.5 assists per game, one steal per game and 28 total steals, and led the Wildcats with 299 total points on the year. 

Thomas County Central’s next home game will be a non-region game against Worth County and is slated to begin at 6 p.m.