Growing Greatness: Youth Programs Underway in Hart County
3rd, 4th, and 5th grade boys have been participating in the Elizabethtown League this season, which Coach Justin Line knew would come with a huge learning curve.
Katrina England
Reporter
Hart Co. News-Herald
Three teams of young athletes across the county received an opportunity not often available in our county. When the regular youth basketball season ended, a new sort of program began. Head coaches Justin Line and Jessica Lindsey held tryouts and created county-wide All-Star-style teams of players from third, fourth, and fifth graders across the district.
“Coach Lindsey and I have been searching for ways to supplement our current structure of youth basketball,” said Line. “We have a couple of camps and then a 5-6 week youth season but then it ends and for some, that’s enough basketball. But for those players who are looking to develop their game and grow as athletes, being in the gym is the number one priority. In order to accomplish this, we decided to build onto the current youth ball structure and add an ‘all-star’ element to the backend of the season to allow players to continue playing and learning.”
The girls went with a conference approach which included teams like Casey County (and) Cumberland County, who are also in Hart County’s middle school conference. Host sites rotate each weekend and the girls’ teams typically played 2 games each weekend from November through January. The boys joined the Elizabethtown Youth League and play 1 game each weekend throughout January and February.”
Line explained that more importantly, all of the players are participating in practices weekly, working on fundamentals and key parts of basketball, which they otherwise might not have had time to learn during the short youth ball season.
He also pointed out the 2024 graduating class as an example of success that comes from playing outside of the cookie-cutter elementary school schedule and little league. That particular group of athletes grew up playing on a team they dubbed the “Warriors.”
“It’s very clear that the more exposure and opportunities young athletes have to play a sport, the more they grow and understand about the game itself,” said Line. “Our goals for these young athletes are to cultivate a love for the game of basketball, teach basic fundamentals that are necessary to be successful at the middle school and high school levels, and provide opportunities for these athletes to play the game of basketball against competition outside of our local area. Without a middle school, Hart County has a unique and special school lay-out, but when you only compete internally, as we’ve done for many years, it’s impossible to gauge where you are in terms of actual talent level and ability. Since these athletes will be competing against other counties as early as middle school, this new system allows for us to get that exposure at a much earlier age.”
When Line chose the Elizabethtown League for the boys’ teams, he knew it would include a major learning curve on all levels.
“Basketball receives a large amount of focus in the E-Town area and kids start playing for school teams early in their careers,” he explained. “Hart County has been at a disadvantage for years because we are missing out on these early development opportunities. The coaches made it very clear to the parents before we started that this is a process and will take a year or two for our teams to become competitive with the high levels of competition in E-Town. They’ve welcomed the challenge and have done an excellent job with getting their players to all of the extra practices. All 3 teams have been competitive in the first few weeks in E-Town with our 5th grade already getting a win.”
Line hopes the community will notice the difference over the next 5-10 years, as these young players move through the middle school and the high school programs.
“As a varsity coaching staff, we are excited to see how this initial work and focus on fundamentals pays off for our athletes in the long-run as we seek to level the playing field with some of the other more prolific schools in the area.”
Line wanted to recognize the coaches, Justin Pritchard and Brandon Adams (3rd grade), Michael Carby and Camron Nunn (4th grade), and LA Rice (5th grade), as well as Michael Puckett for his dedication to the middle school sports.
“They are doing an outstanding job of teaching the game of basketball and helping to build the future of Hart County basketball as a whole,” said Line.
The county-wide girls’ team chose to go with a conference approach to their season, where host sites rotate each week.
In getting early exposure to competitive play, Line hopes the community will notice the difference over the next 5-10 years, as these young players move through the middle school and the high school programs.
