Rome wasn’t built in a day. Neither is a high school basketball program.
When Jamar Dean took the job as head coach of Greer Middle College basketball last offseason, he knew the roadmap was convoluted and winding. He replaced Jamar Armstrong, who departed GMC after seven years to take the head coaching job at Eastside.
“Coach [Jamar] Armstrong laid an incredible foundation here,” said Dean. “These players already had that mindset of wanting things done a certain way and executing that. But we’re a young team. We know it’s going to be a process to get where we want to be.”
The Blazers returned just one starter from the 2024-25 team. That starter — Carlos Miller — suffered a season-ending injury before the year.
After serving for half a decade as an assistant coach for Greer High's basketball team, Dean — in his first-career head coaching role — would be taking over a program and building it back up from scratch.
A senior-led GMC team captured the program’s first-ever region title in 2023-24.
Dean aims to help lead the program back to those heights.
But he knows it’ll take time.
“When we win games, it won’t be because of one guy. It won’t be because of two guys. It’ll be an entire team effort,” said Dean. “We’ve got multiple freshmen and sophomores getting lots of minutes. But the more and more they play and the more and more they get these reps, the better this team will be for it in the long run.”
And as Dean works to build the program to the level he knows it can reach, he’s also working to build the brand.
The Blazer brand.
Along with his roles as head coach, Dean has somewhat taken on the task of “Chief Marketing Officer” for GMC basketball, too. Dean designed a fresh new logo for the team before the season. Dean also handles all graphics and social media posting for the Blazers.
“Marketing is sort of where I excel anyway,” said Dean. “The most important reason for it is that we want to give people the information about us. We want them to be able to easily see when we’re playing, who we’re playing, all that. That’s a way to effectively grow this program into something even bigger.”
Dean also helped GMC officially introduce and create its new mascot: Blaze the Phoenix. Blaze can be seen occasionally at home games, hyping the crowd.
On the court, the Blazers are starting to put some things together halfway through the season. They’ve pulled through for five wins already this season as region play beckons.
Dean knows they’re nowhere near where they want to reach. But he’s excited to nurture and be a part of the growth.
“Every game, every play, it’s huge for us to remember that we’re not just playing for this year,” said Dean. “We are, but we’re also understanding that there will be some hiccups. There will be some mistakes, but that’s just part of the natural maturation process.
“Sometimes, that can be heavy for the younger players we have. They feel every mistake is the end of the world. It’s not going to be perfect. But there are a lot of guys getting their first experience playing at this level, just like I’m getting my first experience as a head coach. We’re learning together.”
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