By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

 

          James Lunsford was in the second decade of trying to get things going at the school that almost 50 years later would name the court after him.   

          Anthony Webb was a young ‘n, having yet to start his high school basketball career at Hancock Central High.

          The year was 1981, and that’s the last time Baldwin won a GHSA boys state basketball title.

          Webb, who went on to win a title and coach for two more at his alma mater, will try to break that title slump when he leads Baldwin against Fayette County in the Class 4A championship in the finale of day one of championship week on Wednesday night at the Macon Coliseum.

          How Webb and the Braves got here is a sit-on-the-porch-and-get-comfy tale.

          “I needed to leave,” said Webb, who spent several years in administration in the Hancock County system and figured on retiring there.

          But there was an issue with Webb’s future administrative duties and compensation, and what he was told would happen didn’t happen. And after classes had started for the 2018-19 school year, Webb resigned and took the head coaching job at Worth County.

          “My mother-in-law lives in Albany, so I stayed there,” said Webb, whose family remained in Gray, where he’d lived for years. “I didn’t have to pay any rent.”

          But his eyes and ears were open and pointing north. A little different timing, and Webb might not be at Baldwin, but at a neighbor.

          Dennis Woolfolk was Jones County’s head boys coach, and Webb heard that the job might be open in the spring of 2019 if Woolfolk’s potential move to administration was approved. It was, but by the time Webb stopped by and inquired with Jones County athletics director Barry Veal, the system has pretty much decided on a coach, and in March of 2019, it introduced Buck Harris.

          Who was at Baldwin. And not exceptionally thrilled with some administrative and support issues. That, and his wife of less than two years months was the head girls basketball coach at Jones County.

          So much for moving back home. Sort of. Webb applied to replace Harris, and he was introduced in May 0f 2019.

          One year away, and back to Central Georgia he came. The only other period he was away was to attend Albany State, and then spend 10 years on the Rams’ staff, one as an interim head coach.

          His record?

          “I really don’t remember,” he said. “But it wasn’t too good.”

          To Hancock Central he went, as an assistant for a few seasons under one Ricky Chatman. Chatman thought each one was better suited for the other one’s job, so they switched, and Webb succeeded Chatman, who became his assistant.

          Yeah.

          And took over when Webb left for Worth County, after winning three region titles and making four Final Four trips under Webb, going 1-1 in championship games, winning the state title in 2008.

          Webb’s success in his second season is a pleasant boost for a program battling for stability.

          Harris succeeded Rechard Larkin, who was also athletics director for two years while also head coach (for five seasons). Larkin’s successor was Henry Hankerson, who resigned in 2018 after being arrested in Toombs County for cruelty to animals. Harris said upon getting the Jones County job that he had worked for three athletics directors in four years.

          Harris brought a quality reputation to Baldwin, as did Webb, who for years had Hancock Central among the top Class A programs in the state, constantly battling another one, Wilkinson County.

          He took over an improving program, Harris going 68-43 in four seasons at a program that had a three-win year just before his arrival.

          The transition has been smooth, the Braves going 14-10 in Webb’s first season.

          “I started three freshman and two juniors,” Webb said. “We played hard. Being so young, we lost some games down the stretch. We still had a chance to win the region championship, but we just made some mistakes down the stretch that cost us.”

          As one transition ended, another start, with Baldwin moving from an Augusta-area region to a Central Georgia region with three Macon-Bibb schools, as well as Perry and West Laurens, plus Spalding.

          Westside and Rutland moved up, and Mary Persons and Upson-Lee moved down in classification.

          “I didn’t know what to expect,” Webb said. “I knew what we had returning, and I thought we’d do well.”

          Little did he know.

          The Braves opened the 2020-21 season with a decent eight-point win over Putnam County before heading west to Macon. To the west side.

          “Westside’s got Kowacie,” Webb said of lean wing Kowacie Reeves Jr., one of the top players in the state and a national recruit who had committed to and signed sign with Florida. “My understanding was they were supposed to be the best team in the league.”

          Ah, a nice early-season test in a season of pandemic uncertainty.

          It was 65-31 after three quarters, with a running clock in the fourth quarter of a 77-59 Braves win.

          Test passed with flying colors and extra stickers.

          Reeves had 27 points, but most were later in the game.

          “We trapped him,” Webb said of a regular philosophy regarding an opponent’s best player. “We trapped him when he got the ball. We went at him. Somebody else was going to have to beat us.”

          Nobody did, and the romp raised an eyebrow or two.

          “I was like, ‘Wow. If we do this, it’s going to be hard to beat us,’” Webb said. “ ‘We could be pretty special.’”

          The big margins continued en route to this dreamy 16-0 record, after following the Westside win eight days later with a 57-49 win over Class A power Dublin.

          Wins by 40 points or more followed, and then in late January came Westside’s visit to Milledgeville.

          And a 70-45 Baldwin win. The margin was 24 at halftime.

          The games naturally were closer in the playoffs, which meant a test. Like against Hardaway, after a 14-point win against Bainbridge to open the playoffs.

          “That as the kind of game we needed,” Webb said. “Can we finish? They had a chance to be up. We played good defense, executed, we shared. We did everything right.”

          The came a road game at state power Miller Grove, winner of more consecutive state titles in recent years than most anybody.

          “We stepped off the bus playing,” Webb said. “We played real good. Third quarter, we didn’t score a few baskets. We stopped executing.”

          The Braves resumed executing, and won 58-52. And a trap and steal and two free throws finished off McDonough in a semifinal.

          Baldwin has a level of confidence because of a high level of balance.

          Rudy Satcher, Shatavious Hogan, Jacobi Nixon, Jermyus Simmons and William Freeman all get between 7.7 and 11.3 points. Nixon and Hogan team for 11.1 rebounds, with the other three getting at least 2.7 a game.

          The balance and chemistry developed early on. Hogan got off to a good start, and teams started focusing on him and slowing him down. Each game, it seemed somebody else took the go-to role. Now, Webb is pretty much cool with whoever needs to get the ball late.

          So it’ll be a confident team that makes the 35-mile trip, and in an atmosphere few teams have seen this season: a large arena with lots of people.

          “We don’t play well at home,” Webb said. “We play well on the road. That’s why it doesn’t bother me.

          “We had a meeting Sunday because I wanted to prepare them mentally for what they were about to go into. I said, ‘This is a neutral site, we’re not at home.’

          “I feel good.”