LOGANVILLE, Ga. — What a difference a year makes.
That’s the mantra coming from Newton Rams girls basketball coach Jawan Bailey after seeing his team make one of the most dramatic one-season swings in the state.
He chronicled it on X (formerly known as Twitter) moments after his Lady Rams knocked off Parkview 55-45 Saturday in the first round of the Region 4-AAAAAAA Tournament at Grayson.
“Last season: 3-22 with no state playoff appearance,” Bailey posted on the app after the Parkview win. “This season: 15-10 and today we clinched a State Playoff spot! Happy to be back!! #OneWay:.”
Bailey, now in his second year at the program’s helm, said he’d already felt good about the win total, given last season’s struggle. But his team punching its ticket to the Class AAAAAAA state tournament with that Parkview victory was the big prize.
“It felt great,” Bailey said. “I kinda waited until we clinched the playoff berth to take the moment in. Wins didn’t matter to me if you’re not getting to the state playoffs.”
That 15th ‘W’ of the season also punctuated the program’s first winning record since the 2019-20 campaign when coach Tiffani Johnson was still pacing the sidelines.
For someone like Newton assistant coach Jurnee Smith, that might be a tough pill of reality to swallow. Smith, who graduated from Newton in 2018, played on that 2017-18 season squad that almost won a state championship.
Now boasting a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Columbus State, the former Lady Ram is back in Covington around the game and the high school program she loves most.
“As I was wrapping up my senior year at CSU, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do career wise, but I knew I would love to be around basketball,” Smith said. “First thought that came to mind was coaching at Newton.”
She said once she discovered coach Johnson was leaving, she quickly looked up Bailey who added Smith to his staff without hesitation.
Now, with a different view from the bench than what she had as a player, she feels a part of the Lady Rams program in a way that gives her a fresh appreciation for it all.
“It feels amazing to have been in my players shoes and now being able to coach them,” Smith said. Being a coach versus a player is very different. I see things that I was not able to see as a player.”
Returning to glory?
One thing Smith didn’t see a lot of during her four years at Newton was losses. Smith’s Newton teams racked up an 88-28 record overall, never finishing lower than second in regular season region standings despite playing in some of the toughest regions in the state.
The pinnacle moment came during the culmination of the 2017-18 season when Smith and company faced Westlake for the Class AAAAAAA state championship. Though Newton fell 60-45 to the Lions, that season galvanized the entire Newton County community and showed how much the area wanted to see one of its high school hoops teams bring home state championship hardware.
Now, though early in the Bailey era, Smith says she’s seen enough already to believe the Lady Rams can get there again.
“I believe coach Bailey can take this program as far as the state championship and winning it,” Smith said. “I know what it takes, and he has been there himself.”
Before coming to Newton, Bailey guided the Josey Eagles out of Augusta to a Class AA state crown and subsequent Final Four finish. So the 3-win season in year one was a bit of a culture shock to him too.
But Bailey cites an influx of both young and seasoned talent coming back into the program as a key reason for the swift about-face.
“When you have players like Sanaa Tripp and Imari Humphrey who were here before decide to return home for their senior years, and then you add in a really good freshman class, plus the kids who were here last year having that year of culture and work ethic under their belts, it really gave you some things to build on,” Bailey said.
There’s a good bit of Division I talent on that roster, too, including Tripp who signed to Belmont in November. Junior Desiree Davis, who’s been out for the season with injury, picked up an offer from Oakland University. Then there’s freshman London Smith, a highly-touted talent out of Liberty Middle. She’s already garnered an offer from Dayton, and Bailey calls her “one of the top freshmen in the country.”
Then there’s freshmen Jamirah Flournoy, Skylar Lovell and Maya Perry rounding out a talented crop of ninth graders.
Call that the results of Bailey rushing to make inroads with Newton’s middle school feeder programs as soon as he got to Covington.
“Building that rapport with the middle school feeders was one of the first things to check off on my list,” he said. “From my experiences in Augusta at Josey, I knew how vital those middle school programs are. So if you want to be successful at this level, you’ve got to go and build relationships with those coaches and players and even parents, letting them know that they can come to Newton High School with their dreams of playing basketball at a high level and the next level.
“You want them to know that this is a good place for you to develop your game and character.”
Making their presence felt
Speaking of character development, Newton’s stay in the region tournament may be longer than what some anticipated. And it’s because Bailey’s bunch wasn’t just happy to settle with the Parkview victory. The Lady Rams advanced to the region championship game with a 60-58 win over Archer Monday. In that game, Tripp led with 24 points, but those freshmen Levell and Flournoy contributed heavily.
Levell chipped in with 10 points while Flournoy knocked down a game-tying shot at the end of regulation to send it into overtime. That’s when junior Alissa Sandifer buried a 3-pointer, once again at the buzzer, to seal the win.
That kind of play against a higher seed Archer squad was just one snapshot of a season-long portrait of resilience displayed by Bailey’s second Newton squad. But even that win doesn’t tell the whole story.
Newton has battled injuries from starters and key players all season, but never used it as an excuse.
“We lose two Division I prospects at the beginning of the season,” Bailey said. “Half way through, we lose Zoey Jackson who was freshmen of the year last year. When you lose three starters to injuries like that and still put together a really decent season, that just shows the toughness of these girls and their desire to battle through adversity and just find ways to get better, even with a really young core.”
Now, Newton will face an undefeated juggernaut in top-ranked Grayson (27-0) Wednesday night at 6 p.m. Neither of Newton’s regular season games against the other Rams — 62-39 and 75-33 losses — were close. But none of that matters for team that’s playing for more than just winning the next game.
This Newton squad is playing for its future — to rebuild itself as a perennial state championship contender once again.
“We’re confident,” Bailey said. “We know we had a really tough schedule this year. Two nationally ranked teams in Grayson and Hebron Christian. Grayson is in our region, and Archer has been state ranked all year. But we feel like we’re prepared now. It’s great competition, and it makes us feel like we can go toe-to-toe with everybody in Class 7A.”
