Hillgrove Hawks host 2025 Cobb County Basketball Media Day

Pope Greyhounds women's basketball head coach Bill Blythe discusses new season on stage at 2025 Cobb County basketball media day

The 2025-2026 Georgia High School basketball season is set to begin and on Sunday, the Hillgrove Hawks girls and boys basketball teams hosted the annual Cobb County Basketball Media Day as teams from throughout the county were on site to discuss preparing for the new season.

"Two things I saw that has me excited about these guys. I saw growth and I saw unselfishness and that's great in a basketball team," Hillgrove men's basketball head coach, Gregory Moultrie said when discussing what he saw from his players over the summer and early fall as they began to work toward the season. "We're trending up and we're excited about the season," Moultrie added.

For the Kennesaw Mountain Mustangs women's team, the new season also included a new the first year under head coach, Karmarlos Jackson, who expressed how impressed he has been with the efforts from his players as they begin to prepare for the the 25-26 campaign. "I've seen the hard work that these young ladies have put in," Jackson said, noting he understands there will be the hurdles of his players acclimating themselves with the culture he looks to install.

"Anytime you're learning something different, there's going to be that transition period but they've embraced it like champions," Jackson said. Meanwhile last season's youth filled roster has Marietta women's head coach, Derrick DeWitt very optimistic about what the season holds as the Blue Devils return their entire roster from 2024.

"The experience we learned from last year is still with them. I think they're stronger physically and mentally," DeWitt said of the growth he has seen in his players as they prepared for the season. "They understand that one possession can really make the difference and so the more possessions we win early in the game, if we're in a close game, we're going to get it done. That's what we've got," DeWitt said of the Blue Devils.

One of 2024-2025's surprise teams was the Mount Paran Eagles men's team, who reached the Georgia High School Association state championship tournament semifinals for the first time in program history and look to build off the success they had last year. "Over the summer and spring I saw the growth of our program," Mount Paran head coach, Chuck Frierson said as he described seeing his players players offseason work. "The biggest thing for us to grow on is growing as a brotherhood," Frierson said of the Eagles.

Also on hand was the Pope Greyhound women's team and for head coach, Bill Blythe, getting the season started means coming out the gate testing themselves. "We have to hit on really hard teams at the very beginning so that we can see the kind of talent we're going to have to come up against at the end of the season," Blythe said of the the Greyhounds strength of schedule to start the season, which he hopes prepares them for the back end of the schedule when they get into region play and in the state championship tournament if they are able to reach it, something he believes his team is capable of. "I really see us as a state tournament team always and the only way we can succeed at that level is that we're well prepared early on," Blythe said.

For the Lady Hawks of Hillgrove, the success of being the outright region champs and then winning the region tournament championship and advancing to the GHSA 6A state title tournament, reaching the quarterfinals has head coach, Susan Milam, ready to see her girls hit the hardwood this year. "We feel good about the work w've put in over the summer, we were excited with the success we had last year and it's kind of given us the motivation and inspiration to improve even more with this season," Milam said.