Six members of the South Georgia Technical College Jets and Lady Jets 2021 – 2022 basketball teams have earned Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Division I All-Academic Team honors, announced GCAA Executive Director David Elder. And both the Jets and the Lady Jets will be representing the GCAA in the NJCAA National Tournaments March 14th – 21st.
Kamya Hollingshed and Maikya Simmons of the South Georgia Technical College Lady Jets sophomores were named to the All-Academic Team and sophomores Kallin Fornesca, Justice Hayes, William Johnston, and Matija Milivojevic were selected to represent the Jets. South Georgia Technical College had the second largest number of scholar-athletes on the GCAA All-Academic team for the 2021– 2022 season. Central Georgia Technical College had the largest number with seven players.
In order to be named to the GCAA All-Academic Team, student athletes must be a sophomore with a minimum of three full-time terms and a minimum of a 3.0 cumulative GPA. Only 30 players in the GCAA earned this recognition from the men’s and women’s basketball teams.
“I am so proud of each of these student-athletes,” said South Georgia Technical College Athletic Director and Lady Jets head coach James Frey. “These students put in many hours of hard work on the basketball court but they are just as diligent with their school work. That is what helps create a winning program – smart players who realize the importance of hard work on and off the court. Basketball is important but the education that these students gain will be valuable long after they retire from this sport.”
Both of the Lady Jets sophomores, Kamya Hollingshed of McDonough, GA and Maikya Simmons of Strafford, VA, have been instrumental in leading the Lady Jets to qualify for their sixth consecutive NJCAA National Tournament appearance. The Lady Jets were 12 – 3 in the Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) regular season and finished in second place behind the 15 – 0 Georgia Highlands Chargers.
The Lady Jets lost to Georgia Highlands in the GCAA Tournament finals but were able to receive an at-large bid based on their 8th place ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Top 25 poll. Georgia Highlands was ranked 3rd in the country. The Lady Jets are currently 26 – 6 on the season.
South Georgia Technical College’s Lady Jets received a ninth-place seed in the NJCAA Division I women’s national tournament which will be played at the Rip Griffin Center in Lubbock, TX March 16th – 21st. They will play on Wednesday, March 16th at noon CT. They will match-up against the 24th ranked Monroe College Mustangs. SGTC defeated Monroe College 58 – 47 November 20th at the Tallahassee Community College Classic in Tallahassee, FL. The winner of the Monroe – South Georgia Tech game will advance to the next round to face 8th ranked Arizona Western on Thursday, March 17th at 4 p.m. CT.
Four of the seven sophomores on the Jets team qualified for this honor. Justice Hayes, a 6’ 4” sophomore guard from Cartersville, GA; Will Johnston, a 6’ 3” sophomore point guard from Sydney, Australia; Kallin Fonseca, a 6’ 3” sophomore guard from Breaux Bridge, LA; and Matija Milivojevic, a 6’ 8” sophomore guard/forward from Belgrade, Serbia, used their academic as well as athletic talents to lead the Jets an 11 – 5 GCAA regular season record and a second place seed in the GCAA Tournament. They won the GCAA Tournament and earned a berth in the NJCAA National Tournament for the third time in the 20-year history of the Jets basketball program and the first for Chris Ballauer as head coach.
The Jets enter the national tournament as the 19th best Division I men’s team in the nation and a 22 – 11 overall record. They are headed to the historic Hutchinson Sports Arena in Hutchinson, KS, March 14th – 19th. This is the 75th anniversary for the men’s basketball tournament. They will open up against South Plains of Texas, the 14th seed, on Tuesday, March 15th at 10 a.m. CT. The winner of that game will take on the 3rd seed Kilgore College on Wednesday, March 16th at 6 p.m. The men’s games will be broadcast live on WISK-98.7 FM in Americus.
This is the second time in the 20-year history of the Jets basketball program that both teams have earned a national tournament bid. It is the 12th time in 20-years that SGTC basketball teams have advanced to the national tournament. This is the ninth trip for the Lady Jets and the third for the Jets.
The NJCAA will be broadcasting all games via livestream (for a fee) here: https://www.njcaa.org/network/landing/index.