A second chance: Southeast Area Prep offers hoopers another opportunity

VALDOSTA, GA – Have you ever heard of one and done? How about a one of one opportunity in the land of the Cougars? Southeast area prep is a trailblazer, and third year Cougars basketball head coach Keshad Lee introduced this one year program that helped his players make it to the next level.

“Me and one of my closest friends at the time had a sit down and we talked about doing an AAU program, and after the season was over we came up with the idea of doing a post-grad year,” said head basketball coach Keshad Lee.

After a high school player graduates, only 3.6 percent get offers to play at the next level. But they only have one year to show what they got here at South East Area.

“I feel like coach Lee will push you to your best potential the best way you can be,” said Cougars guard Kendall Heard. “You play a lot of good teams, tough teams to hopefully get your name out there.

So far coach Lee got 17 players to move on up such as Thomas University, East Georgia State College, St. Andrews and plenty more. But even though he’s able to get his players to the next level, how does he adjust to a new crew each year?

“A lot of these guys that come up here don’t know what to expect. A lot of them think it’s like travel ball or AAU, so I think the biggest adjustment for them is just the timing of everything,” Lee said. “My biggest thing is I just try to push them and stay in their ear.”