The shoes to fill are notable for the Lady Greyhounds.
A final-four team this past season, Jones County is saddled with resetting its backcourt after the graduation of Kamiyah Adams and Aubrey Norris.
But thanks to not shying away from tough summer competition, that transition period is accelerated for the Lady Hounds, even if it comes with its own degree of lack of ease.
With Desirae Dumas and Liberty Pennamon pivoting to backcourt roles, that means that they’ll be leaned upon as the primary scorers and ball handlers in addition to Destinee Dumas also being pegged for a larger role.
“It’s been a big adjustment period, losing Aubrey Norris and Kamiyah Adams,” Lady Greyhounds head coach Takeo Gray said. “Pennamon and the Dumas twins are playing new positions, so it’s been a bit up-and-down, but we’ve also been playing in some hard brackets. Overall, we’re pleased with it, we’ll be in good shape for the season because of that.”
They have adapted to that new role in the team camp portion of Jones County’s summer, which has included games in the Georgia Live Period, the Warner Robins Summer League, tournament play in Suwanee, and this week over at Columbus State.
“Desirae Dumas and Pennamon, they’ll be our primary ballhandlers and scorers, they’ll be a big part of what we’ll be doing on offense,” Gray said.
But the expectation to have others step up hardly stops there. Gray points to KiaAja Bullard as having ‘brought a lot of energy’ during the summer so far with Sariyah Ellis and Zariyah Ross also taking on bigger roles in the summer period so far.
They’ve all experienced growth the past few weeks, even if it’s meant tougher matchups instead of one-sided wins against lesser teams, something Gray feels will pay dividends come November and beyond.
“It helps a lot, I like to play top-level competition. You can play low-level competition, but if you win or lose against top-level competition, you can see how far along you are, its a good gauge,” Gray said.
