Last season, the Brunswick Pirates basketball team put it all together and brought home the state championship. It seemed unlikely that a team from Southeast Georgia would win the title, but the Pirates had a 29-2 record over the course of the year. They were undefeated in the region and won the regular season title and the tournament. The Pirates then defeated five opponents in the state playoffs, including Allatoona in the state championship game in March.
The man who led the way is head basketball coach Chris Turner, now in his eighth year at Brunswick High School. During that time, the Pirates have had five consecutive 20-win seasons and seven straight playoff appearances going into the 2015-16 season.
Prior to becoming a state championship-winning basketball coach, Turner was one of the top high school players in metro-Atlanta history. After graduating from Central Gwinnett High School in 1992, he played basketball at Tennessee Tech before starting his coaching career. He was an assistant at Cedar Shoals High School in Athens, where he learned a great deal about coaching. He moved to Glynn County in 2005, where he was an assistant in football and basketball for Glynn Academy. In 2008, Turner was named head of a Brunswick program which had fallen on hard times. He had a winning season his first year and the rest, as they say, is history.
But history is difficult to repeat. The Pirates have lost last year’s Region Player of the Year Roger Davis and forward Jabril Heck to graduation; however, they return big man Kymani Dunham. In the Game magazine conducted a Question & Answer session with Coach Turner to see how his team has dealt with being champions and what it will take to repeat.
In the Game Magazine: Is winning the state championship everything you dreamed it would be?
Coach Turner: Winning the state title was a dream come true for me and our program. The feeling is, and was, indescribable.
ITG: What was your favorite game last season, and why?
CT: My favorite game would have to be the semifinal game against Cedar Shoals. It was special because I used to work for Cedar, and I am close friends with a lot of folks from Athens. The game was packed, extremely loud, and very competitive. I felt a huge sense of relief after the buzzer sounded, because that was a game you wanted to be over. I enjoyed the fellowship with all my former administration and coworkers.
ITG: What was your first thought after winning the state championship?
CT: My first thought was “thank goodness there is no one else to play.”
ITG: What is the most important thing you learned last year?
CT: We learned that we can do big things at Brunswick, and that it isn’t just a football school.
ITG: What changes have you seen in the Brunswick basketball program?
CT: I have seen our program grow every year. We are truly a program now and expect to do big things. We have seen young boys grow into young men, graduate, and move on to play ball in college.
ITG: What is the toughest part of coaching as a defending champion?
CT: We have a huge target on our back; every loss is magnified, and you are going to get the other team’s best effort every night. In our losses this year, some of the teams and fans rushed the floor. Expectations are even higher.
ITG: How did you get into basketball?
CT: I started playing basketball, baseball, and football at a young age. I wanted to be like my dad, who was always active in sports. I ended up falling in love with basketball as a sophomore in high school and made it my goal to play college basketball.
ITG: What is your favorite thing about the game of basketball?
CT: My favorite thing about basketball is that it is played inside. It also takes brains and talent to be a really good player.
ITG: Before winning the state championship last year, what was your claim to fame?
CT: My claim to fame was being selected Gwinnett County Player of the Year when I was a senior back in 1992. It is a tough award to win, because there are so many high schools in Gwinnett. Also, I had my high school number retired.
ITG: What does the future hold for Chris Turner?
CT: I hope the future is bright for me, because I feel like I’m in the prime of my coaching career. We hope to get better every day and improve the lives of our student-athletes at Brunswick, both on and off the court.
SE-CC-0116-Turner
Chris Turner
Brunswick Pirates
By Rob Asbell
Defending the State Title
