By Darron Thomas
As the 2008/09 season gets into full swing two teams are the prohibitive favorites to win the AA South State Title in Gallman come February and frontrunners to earn a state championship afterwards in Brookhaven. The Brookhaven Cougars won their fourth consecutive state championship last season edging out the Trinity Saints in Grenada. While the probability of these two squads actually matching up again in the state title game are slim due to the chance both could be in the same bracket it wouldn't be a huge surprise if either plays for the title once again.
Brookhaven lost four seniors from last season's squad including starters Corey Dickerson, Daniel Lofton and Sawyer Wallace but Coach Dale Watts has another crop of players learning the Brookhaven system and will undoubtedly be in high gear as January approaches. Seniors Blaine Roberts, Ty Smith and Josh
Winborne will be surrounded by a few new faces and underclassmen and more depth than last season's squad.The Trinity Saints also lost four seniors from last season's AA South Championship and AA State Runners up team. With the loss of Matthew Freeman, Kyle Ketchings, Parker Brumfield and Langdon Morrison, head coach David King has the task of molding yet another group of players with tons of potential. Returning for the Saints is 6'4" senior center Andrew Johnson and guards Brandon Daggs and Givonni Dent. Johnson and Daggs had exceptional play at south state in Columbia last season including the championship game against Bowling Green. The Saints not only won the AA South State Title they also handed Bowling Green their first loss of the season.
These two teams will play twice during the regular season.....January 3rd at Trinity and January 24 at Brookhaven. These two games will surely draw lots of attention and will be a barometer of sorts with regards to who may be the favorite in the post season tournaments. Both won on their homecourts last season.
