GHC Basketball: Head coach Gaffney, Chargers build championship-caliber team

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Almost 1,000 miles stretches between New York City, the state of North Carolina and Rome. But between the city that never sleeps and the rolling hills of the South, Georgia Highlands head basketball coach Phil Gaffney and his staff have picked up a collection of young basketball talent along the way in hopes of taking home not just a region title, but a national championship.

The Chargers boast not only an athletic lineup, but a diverse one as well.

Half of GHC’s players, who see significant minutes, hail from outside the Peach State, and two others, who are native to Georgia, returned to their home state after leaving.

“We’ve got three guys who lived in North Carolina, a fourth went to prep school there,” Gaffney said. “And obviously since I was there for five years, I got a good beat on the North Carolina kids.”

Gaffney began his career coaching in Upstate New York but also coached in Maryland and most recently at Guilford Tech Community College in Greensboro, North Carolina. And through his travels, Gaffney has compiled contacts among coaches, recruiters and players to find the best talent along the East Coast.

But Gaffney isn’t the only one finding the talent, and he’ll be the first one to give all his credit to his two assistant coaches, JJ Merritt and Matt Williams, who Gaffney said have been instrumental to the success of the Chargers.

“They have done a phenomenal job,” Gaffney said.

“In my 19 years before as a head coach, I did all the recruiting. I was the guy. With these guys (Merritt and Williams), they do a ton of the evaluation and developing the relationship, and I’m more of a close guy at the end.”

And through word of mouth up and down the East Coast, Gaffney and the Chargers found their way to each other and started a path toward something they had only imagined.

Point guard Taquan Givens took the longest journey to reach Rome, following a similar path to his head coach.

Givens’ Bronx accent is most recognizably different from the rest, as was his original desire to only score points coming out of high school. The shifty guard began his playing career in his native Bronx, New York, but moved to Riverside Christian Academy in North Carolina for his senior season of high school.

Givens almost gave up basketball entirely when problems with his high school’s Division I eligibility

came into question. He even took a summer off before hearing his friend from the Bronx, JaeQuan Brown, had committed to Georgia Highlands in 2014. Curious, Givens inquired about the junior college route and told Brown to ask Merritt for a workout. Brown immediately called Merritt and told him he had his starting point guard for the season.

“I was like, ‘For real? Is he that good?’ Merritt said. “So he sent me a tape and I researched him. (Givens) was the No. 14 best player in North Carolina last year, so I thought he must be pretty good. We brought him down for a visit, and I immediately liked his game.”

Merritt made the same pitch he’d made to every other recruit: We will prepare you for a Division I school, we will win a championship, but you will learn how to play as a team.

Being from New York, Givens said he had to learn how to become more a floor general than an all-out offensive threat.

“Coming from New York, scoring, scoring, scoring that’s what we know,” Givens said. “Now I just figured it out. As a point guard, I don’t have to take shots to have an impact on the court. And that’s helped out my game a lot, because it takes a lot of pressure off of me. I can score, I can get somebody a shot and I can play defense.”

The final three North Carolina boys, Donovan Harris, Montrel Goldston and Terrance Thompson, all came highly recommended to Gaffney by Bob Smith, a local scout in North Carolina, who Gaffney knew during his coaching days at Guilford Tech.

Harris, Goldston and Jamison Jeffers — who moved on to Division I Virgina State last year — all came together last season. The trio played for different high schools (Harris played for Mount Zion Christian Academy — the same high school Tracy McGrady went to — and Goldston attended Greensboro Day High School) but they all played for the same AAU team.

Harris and Jeffers were easy to convince, but Goldston was still attached to his home state of North Carolina.

“Trel was the hardest,” Gaffney said. “He wouldn’t have come, because he’s a homebody. He loves North Carolina. He does not like to be away from North Carolina.”

But When Harris committed, Goldston felt more comfortable with his decision to leave the state he loves, and now Harris gobbles up the paint while Goldston feeds the forward inside.

Thompson didn’t come to Rome until a year after Harris and Goldston committed. The lone freshman forward, who gives the Chargers a spark off the bench each game, redshirted at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro before deciding to transfer.

Again, Gaffney asked his buddy Bob Smith about potential recruits, and Smith pushed him toward Thompson.

“Bob said, ‘You know, he’s not getting a lot of playing time. They don’t have him in their long term plans. He’d be great for you,’” Gaffney said. “And he has been great.”

Thompson immediately became an integral part of the Chargers’ game. In his first game this season, Thompson posted a double-double and continued to dominate on the glass throughout the season. His lengthy frame provides depth for a Chargers teams that feeds off its presence in the paint.

While Givens, Harris, Goldston and Thompson all came from North Carolina, it took Macon-native Denzel Council a cross-country trek to California for him to realize he belonged in Georgia. Council wanted a change of scenery, he said, and found himself playing at East Los Angeles Community College for one season.

“I decided to try and spread my wings as a young man, and I wasn’t ready for that decision to be that far away from my parents,” he said. “I think I was immature, to be honest. I haven’t really been on my own like that before.”

After a season away from home in a situation Council said wasn’t what he thought it’d be, the 6-foot-7-inch forward began looking around for schools back home in the South. One night, he found Georgia Highlands’ website and filled out a recruitment questionnaire. Council didn’t even know if he’d get a response, but he said he prayed for someone, anyone to reach out.

The email reached the desk of Merritt, who immediately recognized Council’s name from his days at Covington Christian High School. Back then, Merritt coached at Action Sports Academy Post Grad, a prep school he helped found that was designed to give high school graduates a chance to hone their skills before going college. After seeing Council’s email, Merritt poured over his high-school film and invited Council down for a visit.

When Council arrived on campus, he was very much out of shape. “I was fat and lazy, eating too many tortillas,” he said.

But through all that, Council said he was more motivated than ever.

Gaffney put him through a rigorous workout to prove his desire to compete. Not only did Council complete every exercise without a single complaint, he even stayed around for a little pick up basketball with the rest of the team.

Afterward, Gaffney pulled Council aside, still not entirely sure if he wanted to sign him.

“He came here and I said, ‘Why should I take a chance on you?’ And he said, ‘Because I turned my life around, turned my attitude around and you’re going to see, I’m going to be better in this classroom, in basketball and as a person.’ And that’s our motto: better person, better student, better athlete. And he said he was going to do all those,” Gaffney said. “And my God, the kid turned around. He’s the nicest, sweetest kid.”

Council started every game for the Chargers this year and averaged 11 points and six rebounds a game.

“When you make a decision, you want to feel loved. And I felt the love from the coaches. They believed in my skill set,” he said. “It made me grow up a lot as a young man. It made me be thankful for the little things in life.”

While Council found Georgia Highlands among a throng of potential schools, Gaffney and company found Doniel Dean hidden behind a big 6-foot-8-inch forward. Assistant coach Williams went down to Newnan, Georgia originally to recruit a different player, but while he watched a practice, someone else caught his eye: a small, defensive-minded guard.

Captivated by his play, Williams called up Gaffney to tell him about Dean, someone he thought they should really be targeting.

“And I kept saying, ‘Coach, I’m not questioning your evaluation skills, but why isn’t anybody else recruiting him?’” Gaffney said. “This kid had like two or three JuCos, looking at him. The other kid had like 50.”

William’s evaluation ended up being dead-on, as Dean became one of the most consistent defenders on the court for the Chargers this season.

“He’s the real glue to the team. He guards the best player every game,” Gaffney said. “Sometimes that happens. You go looking for A, but B is the one you really like.”

The success and failure of junior college athletics rest solely on its ability to to elevate Division-I caliber players into superstars. It can happen a few different ways, though.

A junior college can provide a formerly ineligible athlete a chance to become academically eligible without losing time on the court, or it can take a D-I transfer and give him time to build on his skills without having to sit out a year.

That was the case for guard Ty Toney, the missing piece to Gaffney’s puzzle on way to a region title and national championship tournament berth.

Toney, who was born in Kentucky but moved to Alpharetta when he was 12, played for Appalachian State last year and much like Thompson at UNC-Greensboro, wanted to transfer but didn’t want to miss a year of games. At first, Toney said he was content with sitting out the year, but he quickly changed his mind after receiving a call from Merritt.

“He pitched it to me and it didn’t sound like a such a bad idea,” Toney said. “He was just telling me if I come here, we can win a championship. And I’m all for that. And we did it, so he wasn’t lying.”

Merritt had actually heard about Toney’s transfer from Mike Moynihan, who used to work at Troy University but is now the Director of Basketball Operations at George Mason University.

Again, Merritt did his research, and Gaffney agreed that Toney fit the team’s fast-paced, defensive system. There was only one problem. Why would Toney agree to go from a D-I school at Appalachian State to a three-year old junior college basketball program in northwest Georgia?

Enter freshman guard Paris Ballinger, who had recently committed to the Chargers.

Merritt discovered Ballinger and Toney had played AAU basketball together in Atlanta and had become close friends. So with Ballinger’s permission, Merritt called up Toney to tell him about the opportunities at GHC.

“I got up here on campus, and it was a good fit,” Toney said. “I felt like we had a good group to do what we needed to do and win. I felt at home.”

“They liked our vision and what’s going on now,” Merritt said. “Getting a ring and getting a chance to play for a national title. That was everything they looked for in a JuCo. It was a good fit and it’s worked out well for us.”

While Ballinger doesn’t play many minutes for the Chargers, Toney has excelled in the backcourt with Givens to provide GHC with a powerful punch at guard. Toney leads the team with 17 points per game, also good for second in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association.

The Chargers have a long way to go, and their journey through the NJCAA tournament won’t be easy, but Gaffney and company have been pleased with the progress the young program has had in its first three years. And while GHC only recruited players from three states, Gaffney said that’s really all they need to compete.

“If I just stick to Georgia, North Carolina and New York,” Gaffney said, “ there’s no reason we can’t compete for a national championship every year.”

Source: Rome News

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