David W. Healy
dhealy@ddtonline.com
Jeremy Gilbert is a young coach in his first season leading the boys varsity basketball team at Leland High School. Three years ago he led Leflore County all the way to the Big House in the MHSAA Class 2A state playoffs.
This season Gilbert says he is learning just as much guiding the Leland Cubs who have lost their first 11 games of the season.
Coach Gilbert, 36, is enjoying the challenge of trying to turn the program around.
“A lot of kids I have on the team this year are young and don’t understand the concepts and the fundamentals of the game,” he said. “I consider myself a winner, and I consider this a learning season. I can take many things from this year to make myself a better coach.”
Coach Gilbert’s Cubs have had halftime leads in a number of games this season, but each time have made a couple of key mistakes that prevented them from victory.
Leland has nine players on its roster this season and all nine of these players, including four freshmen, are seeing valuable minutes. The minutes played by these young players this year will be instrumental in the growth of the program, said the Leland coach.
One of the top Leland players this season has been junior Ladarius Wilson, who leads the Cubs in scoring this season. Along with his scoring, Wilson also helps place his teammates in the right positions on the court.
Jameel Muhammad and Jeremy Felston, meanwhile, are the only two seniors on this year’s Leland team.
Coach Gilbert grew up in Itta Bena and graduated from Leflore County High School. At Leflore County, Coach Gilbert was a member of the Tiger basketball team. Although he was not a star player, his coach, Lester Smith, recognized that he had a strong understanding of the game of basketball.
“Coach Smith told me that I will be doing his job one day because I saw the game as a coach. I saw things before they happen. I didn’t believe him at the time, but he turned out to be correct.”
Coach Gilbert spent seven seasons coaching the LeFlore County junior varsity boys basketball team before coaching the varsity squad for three seasons.
He said he is thankful for the opportunity given to him by the administrators at Leland High School.
“Leland is a small town where everybody knows everybody and it is similar to what I grew up in at Itta Bena. The same type of player from Leflore is the same type of player here, but the coach can’t have more belief than the players have. I want the players here to believe in themselves even more than I do.”
