Panther sharp-shooter Greg Richardson signed Thursday to play ball for East Georgia College in Swainsboro, sealing his fate as a soon-to-be Bobcat.
Head coach Neil Bailey said he is thrilled about Richardson joining the team. The Bobcat basketball squad just completed its inaugural season with five other Hinesville boys on the roster. Richardson will join Derrick Nesbitt, Andre Holliday, Joseph Owens, Will Jackson and Dana King Jr. as the Bobcats prepare for a 30-game schedule in season two.
"It’s like I’m going over to a new family to play basketball with," Richardson said. "I’m moving from one family to another. I just felt like at East Georgia, he (coach Bailey) would push me to the best of my abilities and get me up to the next level and make me work real hard."Bailey said Richardson is the type of player they look to recruit at EGC — a student who is serious about his education first and athletics second. But Bailey said Richardson’s skills on the court are also a draw.
"He came up a couple of times and I saw him on video tape, and he impressed me with his athletic ability and his shooting
ability," Bailey said. "He’s a great athlete who can shoot and you don’t see those two things together often in the lower, smaller colleges. And then we look at his ability on the court. The other kids from Hinesville kept saying, ‘You have to get Lamar. He can really play.’ They were adamant about me checking him out and looking at him and it turns out they were
right."
"He has a beautiful jump shot," Panther coach Willie Graham said. "He is real knowledgeable and he plays well with his teammates. He is not selfish and he’s a good individual. Greg made second team all-region and he would always come up big and hit the deciding basket for us."
Richardson’s mother Annette said her son is very independent, but said she is happy to get the calls and text messages he sends throughout the day to keep her posted.
"I just hope he keeps that up," she said of his life away from home.
"We toured the school and we conversed together and we got to meet the coach," Richardson’s father Gregory said. "And it was a great feeling. It was easy and we all agreed this was the place for him. The coach made it easy. His personality and what he stands for made it easy for us to decide."
"It’s important that we recruit kids that are really happy to be at East Georgia and that want to be there," Bailey said. "And because we pretty much developed a reputation in this area, it tends to build on itself. Kids are excited about coming to school there and I’m sure in the future we’ll have many more Hinesville-area basketball players at East Georgia College — at least I hope so."