CAIRO — The growing pains hit Cairo’s boys basketball team hard last year.

Coming off a dismal season in the win-loss column, the young Syrupmakers are looking at another period of growth that will continue on the road against Thomas County Central on Friday.

The major obstacle that Cairo dealt with in its 2-24 campaign was a lack of veterans. This year, the overall youth of the team is still something that it has to deal with, with a good part of the team made up of freshmen and sophomores. The good news for the Syrupmakers is that they’re already 1-0 after collecting their first win against Baker County last week.

“It’s always good to get a win, but we still have only three seniors in the entire program,” Cairo boys coach Isiah Chance said. “We still have lot of young kids. You’d like for your varsity team to be made up of seniors and juniors, but we don’t have that luxury. The problem when you’re playing ninth graders at the varsity level is that they’re not big or strong enough. It’s just a process.”

They’ll be looking to execute an up-tempo type of offense to try to compensate for that perceived lack of size. While a vast majority of the team is very young, they will have a few older kids leading the charge, with seniors Travis Hunter and Jahsearii Patterson looking to lead the team with the experience they have. 

While the Syrupmakers did get their first win, that game against struggling Baker was a win last year as well. The real tests will begin this week, playing the Yellow Jackets and another rival game against Bainbridge on Saturday. 

The football players on the team like Patterson are still getting adjusted after a deep run in the football postseason. There’s a lot of learning and organizing to do, but Cairo hopes that this year it can yield a much better overall result.

“We’re all looking forward to seeing how we play against our rivals,” Chance said. “I’m a big effort guy. The biggest thing we’re going through is getting everyone organized. We’re in the middle of the football transition. Give us another week, and we’ll have everybody where we want them to be.

“You try to get them better every possession and hopefully at the end of the season, you see what happens at the end of the day.”