Following a successful basketball season for both the boys and the girls in 2018-19, the program is being rewarded in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools all-star game.
Both Justin Childs and Moe Reed will be assistant coaches for the Class AAA-AAAA All-Star games this Friday for the boys and girls respectively. In addition to their duties as coaches, they’ll get to work with a couple of their star players for one final time.
The boys team is coached by former Millsaps head coach and current Jackson Prep head man Tim Wise. Childs is eager to work with the longtime head man.
“I’m really excited about it. It’s going to be a lot of fun because this will be a lot of great players on one team,” Childs said. “The chance to get to work with coach Wise who has been in the business for 30 plus years and is a former college coach is pretty awesome.”
Of course, Childs also counts it a blessing to get to coach Collin Mills one final time. Mills led the Patriots this season in points with 12.9 and worked himself up to All-Star status and Childs is happy for him as a coach.
He’s also happy for him because Mills is family. Childs is Mills brother and the two have had a chance to be player and coach throughout Mills’ high school career.
“The biggest thing I’m excited about is to have one last opportunity to coach Collin,” Childs said. “I was really excited to coach him throughout his high school career. He had developed into a really good athlete and has a lot of love for the game of basketball. It’s been a fun ride.
“It’s been a dream come true for me to be able to coach him. That was a big draw to moving back home. He was always at my games in high school and he great up watching me playing basketball. As a kid he drew pictures of me as a basketball player and that’s where he developed his love for basketball I think.”
The teams were chosen from a pool of 24 players across the state and coaches selected both north and south players together for their teams. Opposite Childs and Wise on the other benches will be Copiah Academy coach Ricky Gray and Lamar coach Josh Sherer.
Reed will assist in the girls game following her team’s runners up finish in both District 2-AAA and North State falling to the eventual district, north state and state champs from Leake Academy who also finished second in the overall tournament.
Joining Reed from Winston will be the district Player of the Year Lilly Sisson. After her outstanding season and a ball game on Friday, Sisson will go on to a college basketball career at Mississippi College next season.
The boys game takes place on Friday at 5 p.m. at Jackson Prep while the girls will play at 3:30 p.m. Admission for these games are $10.
