It’s not often that a junior varsity team makes headlines, but the JV Bear Basketball team made sure that everyone knew their names last weekend when they won the championship at the Deweyville Varsity Tournament. After beating Deweyville 60-16 and West Hardin 37-27, they played Spurger in the championship game and won, 52-45.

JV coach Brad Jeffcoat said he chose to enter his team in the varsity tournament because it is always good to challenge his team with older opponents, even though it can be hard trying to adjust to the other teams.

“We’ve never seen any of them before so we didn’t know what to expect,” he said.

This year’s team is made up of mostly sophomores and according to Jeffcoat, some of their biggest strengths on the court are being patient and coachable.

“They are fun to coach because they work hard and really love to play basketball,” Jeffcoat said. “It’s fun to be around guys like that.”

According to Jeffcoat, the team is led by sophomore Tyreke Brown, who is important because he is the only true ball handler on the team.

“Tyler Miller is also a guy that I feel like I can count on because he can play pretty much every position,” Jeffcoat said. “J’Lon Douglas is always a guy who I know will play hard and be physical.”

Douglas, who is also a sophomore, said the best part of playing varsity teams in the tournament was that it helped the team with what they needed to work on, both as a team and individually.

“I learned if you work harder than others you will win,” Douglas said about taking home first place. “I felt like we needed to win it all.”

Jeffcoat said his team typically prepares for each game by practicing against the varsity players, which may have been a huge factor in helping the guys win the varsity tournament.

“The idea behind that is that no matter who our JV plays, they will not be as tough as what they are used to practicing against,” he said.

The players also try their hardest as individuals to improve with each practice and game so they can continue to have a winning season.

“I keep my mind focused and work to get better,” sophomore Christian Weatherly said. “If you play hard and do what you need to do, something good will come out of it.”

Weatherly and Douglas both said it felt awesome to win against varsity level teams and their coach would have to agree.

“It feels good,” Jeffcoat said of winning the championship. “It is nice to see people notice that they are a good basketball team.”