Gray Collegiate’s basketball teams entered the season No. 1 in the coaches association’s 2A boys and girls preseason polls and will have the opportunity to make history for the second consecutive year. 

The War Eagles became the 10th program in high school league history to win both the boys and girls basketball championships on the same day and will have a good shot at doing it again this year. 

“I think that would be awesome to have the girls go back to back and us have an opportunity to win three straight again,” boys head coach Dion Bethea said. “It would be huge for our program.”

The boys team has established itself as a dynasty under Bethea, claiming its fifth championship in six seasons. The girls claimed their first title in program history last season under first-year head coach Brandon Wallace. 

Wallace may have captured his first state title as a head coach, but he has years of championship-winning experience. 

He was named Gatorade Player of the Year and won a state championship at Silver Bluff in 2003, was a part of the South Carolina team that won back-to-back NIT championships in 2005 and 2006 and served as an assistant coach under Bethea as Gray won four state titles. 

“I’m proud of Brandon,” Bethea said. “Just to watch his growth, we knew how good he was as a player. But him having an opportunity to lead his own program and win a state championship last year and have some opportunities to win this year, it’s huge for him and his resume.”

The pair have known each other since Wallace’s time in AAU. He was a member of Bethea’s team, and years later reached out to him about the possibility of joining his staff.

“It’s a great thing what he’s built here at Gray,” Wallace said. “I branched off into the girls and kind of just took all the stuff that I learned from him over to this side.”

Since Wallace has taken over the reins of the girls program, the two talk every day and Bethea has become a trusty source of coaching advice. 

“Our relationship is more like a big brother, little brother type deal, so we spend a lot of time together,” Wallace said. “I’m always picking his brain. It’s a great mentorship. He’s a great guy. He does a lot for our boys and girls program.”

Wallace learned not to constantly focus on the end goal as he improved as a coach. He said he now understands it is about the everyday grind necessary to improve and compete by the end of the season.

“I’ve won one as a player in high school. I won one as an assistant coach, and then one as a head coach, and I realized that for me it’s more the journey than it is the final destination,” Wallace said. “I think taking a different group of kids and taking them on that path and showing them how to win and then ultimately them actually winning and becoming champions, I think that journey means more to me than actually winning championships.”

Both teams will have a long journey ahead of them before the playoffs, but both rosters feature an abundance of talent they can lean on. 

The boys team lost last season’s 2A Player of the Year Montraivis White and All-State selection Avantae Parker but returns three players that received preseason Players to Watch honors. Braylhan Thomas and Trey Maddox were named 2A elite players and Ellis Graham was named a top-five senior. 

“We have a lot of great talent, a lot of good youth. I really feel like the only team that can beat us is us beating ourselves,” Bethea said. “We just got to make sure we stick to the course and continue to work hard.”

The girls are full of youth and return four of the team’s top six leading scorers from last season. 

Jordan Mintz is the lone senior of the group and will be a major contributor for the team this season. Juniors Kadence Walker-lee, Diamond Tatum and Karlee Phelps are a few others who will see significant playing time. 

“Before we were kind of hunting, now we’re the hunters,” Wallace said. “There’s no sneaking up on nobody no more. They see that name, they’re coming. We’re going to get everybody’s best shot, and we’re just trying to prepare them for that moment.”

The boys and girls teams have been working to find their footing early in the season. The boys enter this week’s slate of games 4-2, with wins over Peoria Notre Dame, Victory Christian Academy, Covenant Day and Chapin but losses to Metamora and Hoover.

Gray’s girls are 2-3, having beat Crestwood and Denmark-Olar but falling to Ridge View, Trinity Collegiate and Chapin. 

The season is young and no team is expected to come out perfect. Both teams have the time and the talent to continue improving, get back to the playoffs, and compete for an opportunity to continue building on a dynasty and establishing the roots for another.

I don’t want to discredit a state championship because that’s big. It doesn’t happen all the time,” Wallace said. “But it would be good. It would be big. I mean, to build from where we started a couple of years ago … then to see it come full circle with the state championship and to do it twice, that would be amazing.”