Coming off a second-round playoff appearance last season, the Fort Mill Yellow Jackets are once again ready for basketball season.
Fort Mill finished last season at 17-11 overall while falling to Byrnes in the second round of the 5A playoffs. This season the Jackets are returning two key players from that team in Nas Berry and Logan Parker.
“We are all on the same page and we are excited to get going,” said second year Fort Mill head coach Myron Lowery.
Lowery said ways for Fort Mill to be successful this year includes “solid defense” and “scoring from a variety of people.”
Both Berry and Parker are two players who know how to score for Fort Mill. Berry averaged 11.9 points and Parker averaged 9.7 points per game last season. Berry led the team in both steals and assists last year, while Parker was second in rebounds per game for Fort Mill with an average of 4.3 per game.
“We have high expectations because we know most of the teams around us in the region are local this year,” Parker said. “We expect a lot out of ourselves.”
One player that Fort Mill is without is AJ Washington, who transferred out of the school district. Washington led the Jackets both in scoring and rebounds.
Coming up from the JV ranks, Fort Mill will have their height in the form of Wallace Campbell. Campbell is one of two 6’5” players on the roster for the Jackets along with Noah Mason. Xander Gray also tops out at 6’7” for Fort Mill.
Campbell said the team has a lot of good talent around them this season.
“We have a good team around us,” he said. “I think we can do pretty well.”
Parker points out that games against Clover and Indian Land should be some of the bigger match-ups for Fort Mill this season. Obviously, the games against Nation Ford and Catawba Ridge are also key in Region 3-5A success for the Jackets.
Fort Mill opens the season on Monday, Nov. 25 against York Prep in the Yellow Jackets preseason tournament. Their first regular season game will be against Providence at home on Dec. 3. Fort Mill has non-region games against Gaffney, Byrnes, York, Andrew Jackson, and Marvin Ridge.
The Jackets open region play on Dec. 20 against Catawba Ridge. Fort Mill will travel to Greenville for the Poinsettia Classic on Dec. 26-28 for their only tournament over the winter break. They will resume region play at Clover Jan. 3.
Lady Jackets looking to improve on last year’s success
Fort Mill finished 17-10 last season and lost in the first round of the playoffs to Mauldin. While starting well, Fort Mill struggled in the region. The Jackets are looking for consistency throughout the season this year in both region and non-region games.
“The girls have worked really hard,” said Fort Mill head coach Nathan Wruble. “We had a lot of freshman and sophomores move to varsity that we are excited about. We are excited about the opportunity we have.”
Fort Mill is a young team this season with only two seniors in Izzie Barber and Saylor Heberling, and three freshman and two sophomores.
“We have such a young team so it will be exciting to see how we play together,” said junior Kate Marker.
Fort Mill will open the season at the Lake Murray Tip Off Classic on Nov. 25 and Nov. 27. Their non-region opponents, unlike the boys’ team, is Weddington on Dec. 5 and Independence on Feb. 6.
The Lady Jackets will be hitting the road for the Lexington Invitational on Dec. 21 and 23 for its winter break tournament.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
