The Johnson boys basketball team is back in the state championship for the first time in more than a decade.

The team’s return to the title game on Friday, March 8 at 3pm, in Macon qualifies as an unexpected run. The unranked Atom Smashers won a thrilling Final 4 game over No. 4 Dougherty on Saturday, 55-51, in Tiger Arena at Savannah State. Of the 55 points scored by Johnson, 47 came from a trio of Josh Quarterman (14 points), Favion Kirkwood (15) and Cormari Jones (18).

On the season, Quarterman is averaging 17.9 points per game while Kirkwood averages 15.1 and Jones 10.1.

It was the third straight victory over a ranked team in the state playoffs for Chuck Cambell’s team, which began the season as the No. 6 team in Class 3A before falling out of the rankings for good in early January. It was also an emotional win, as Campbell was coaching against his mentor, former Jenkins head coach Bakari Bryant.

Bryant’s Dougherty team had beaten Johnson 68-48 in November, but the Atom Smashers are playing their best basketball of the season right now and they’ll need it against No. 1 Sandy Creek in the title tilt set for Friday afternoon.
Sandy Creek knocked out Johnson last year in an Elite 8 game played at Johnson. The Patriots have yet to play a game in the state playoffs which didn’t turn into a laugher. In four playoff wins, Sandy Creek has outscored opponents by a combined score of 330-140 for a 47.5 point average margin of victory.

Take a deeper look at both teams in the capsules below.

JOHNSON INFO
COACH: Chuck Campbell
MASCOT: Atom Smashers
CITY: Savannah
RECORD: 20-11
OFFENSE: 58.0 points per game
DEFENSE: 52.6 points allowed per game
LAST 10: 8-2
KYLE SANDY’S 3A RANK: N/A
MAX PREPS 3A RANK: 6

SANDY CREEK INFO
COACH: Jon-Michael Nickerson
MASCOT: Patriots
CITY: Tyrone
RECORD: 26-3
OFFENSE: 69.7 points per game
DEFENSE: 45.2 points allowed per game
LAST 10: 9-1
KYLE SANDY’S 3A RANK: 1
MAX PREPS 3A RANK: 1

THE NEED TO KNOW
WHEN – Friday, March 8, 3pm
WHERE – Macon Centreplex (200 Coliseum Dr., Macon, GA, 31217)
WHAT – GHSA Class 3A Boys Basketball State Championship
STREAM – NFHS Network ($)
FOLLOW – @JaudonSports on Twitter (X)
TICKETS ($15)
LIVE STATS

HVJ BASEBALL COACH SETH GASPIN ON 400 CAREER WINS

Last week, the head baseball coach at Jenkins High School reached a milestone for his career that few baseball coaches ever do. Seth Gaspin earned his 400th career win on Feb. 28 when his Warriors (6-1) knocked off Windsor Forest in a non-region road game.

When he first arrived at Jenkins for the 2004 season, Gaspin had already won 158 games first at Dunellon (11 wins) in Florida and then at Memorial Day School (147) in Savannah. The 400th win was his 242nd at Jenkins High School, a public school where players aren’t hand-picked as they are many times at private school programs.

Gaspin, 54, spoke with Connect Savannah the following day to talk about his road to 400 victories.

“I get a lot of people reaching out and saying all these years that we’ve taken the guys nobody wanted or the guys that came to public school not having much baseball experience and we’ve won a decent amount with them, but I never really thought about it like that,” Gaspin said.

“I just think we hit it harder and longer than anybody else when we first got there. And I think that’s what made us a little bit different. I think we hit more than anybody. We took more walks than anybody. Nothing magic about it.”

Magical or not, Gaspin’s consistency has been something worth admiring. His ability to stay consistent in the dugout, even as the names on the lineup card continue to change, is rare in today’s game.

“People say that kids are different now and all this kind of stuff and the way they are raised is different, and everything else,” Gaspin said. “But I guess doing this really all my life – I was an assistant coach in 1989 at my high school before I got to go play in college, so I got to coach in the eighties and nineties and 2000’s. And you know what? Kids to me are our kids.”

He cited coaching influences including former Calvary Day and Benedictine skipper Kevin Farmer when asked about his coaching style.

“I think my philosophy since I started was, I’m hard-nosed,” Gaspin said. “When I say hard-nosed, that means a stickler for the little things in baseball. And I think of the people like Kevin Farmer and those of us that grew up in that era, we always put runners in motion and always tried to keep up the pressure on the bases.”

And when will he finally hang ’em up and retire? Gaspin says it could be a while if he has any say in the matter.

“I haven’t lost any love for the game. I don’t know when that will happen, but it hasn’t yet,” he said. “Don’t get me wrong, these last two years have been really tough. But we’ve got a young group of guys who are hungry right now so it would be really hard for me to think about leaving anytime soon. This is the only thing I’ve ever done in my life, you know what I mean? Since 1976 really, I haven’t wanted to do anything else.”

45TH ST. PATRICK’S DAY RUGBY TOURNAMENT THIS WEEKEND

The 45th Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Rugby Tournament is set for this weekend, March 9-10, 2024, in Savannah’s Daffin Park. It’s annually one of the largest rugby tournaments in the country.

Hosted by the Savannah Shamrocks Rugby Club, the tournament is open for the public to attend and typically features 75-80 rugby teams from around the country. Teams are classified into brackets (men and women) and grouped based on talent and age (college, premier, senior, etc.). A new addition this year will be the live music on Saturday afternoon for fans and teams alike to enjoy.

Saturday will have matches lasting from 8am-6pm and Sunday from 9am-2pm. The championship matches usually begin “around 1pm” on Sunday, said Tournament Director Lindsay Schmidt.

“We encourage the public to bring their blankets or lawn chairs and come on out to watch some great competition,” said Schmidt during a February phone call with Connect Savannah. “We have another full field of teams signed up this year.”

Each year, a portion of the proceeds from the tournament go toward helping local charities.

“As in years past, we will be donating to community programs like the Second Harvest Food Bank and The Humane Society,” Schmidt said. “All of the proceeds from beer sales will be donated and a portion of the money made from items like apparel or gear will also be donated.”

Vendors will offer food and beverages throughout the tournament.

“We’ll have a variety of food trucks and rugby vendors out there each day,” Schmidt said. “There will be both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages for sale out there both days.”

A bracket and complete schedule of the tournament will be posted online (by Thursday, March 7) at RugbySavannah.com. To learn more about the specifics of the weekend, email tournament director Lindsay Schmidt at tournament@rugbysavannah.com.

NEED TO KNOW
WHAT: 45th Savannah St. Patrick’s Day Rugby Tournament
WHEN: Saturday-Sunday, March 9-10
WHERE: Daffin Park; 1301 E. Victory Dr.
WEBSITE: RugbySavannah.com
SOCIAL MEDIA: Savannah Shamrocks on Facebook & Instagram
EMAIL: Lindsay Schmidt, tournament@rugbysavannah.com

This article appears in Connect Savannah I February 2024.