Tift County head coach Julie Conner and local Fellowship of Christian Athletes representative Larry Poole (both back row, left of center) before TCHS went to Tennessee for FCA camp earlier in June. That camp set up the Lady Devils for a successful run throughout the month.

TIFTON, Ga. — Please forgive Tift County girls basketball coach Julie Conner for wanting to skip the calendar forward a few months.

Following a successful Basketball at the Beach, the Devils kept rolling, winning more honors and awards at camps at Georgia College and State University and at Ware County. And Conner would not mind the 2018-19 basketball season starting right now.

She took a group of seven to Milledgeville and GCSU.

“Different people are going to each one,” she said. GCSU was specifically a junior varsity camp. The variety works. “Different (players) have gotten individual attention,” Conner said.

Which has allowed some new faces to step into the spotlight.

In Milledgeville, standouts were Nicky Jones, Cali Conner, Shakiria Chaney and Oashia Cushion.

Cushion, a rising eighth grader, won the “hot spots” competition where players shoot from different areas of the court. In the first round, Cushion lit up the scoreboard with 50 points.

The camp at Ware County was a fundamentals camp, Conner said. Run by Jason Shields, girls basketball coach at Hokes Bluff, Ala., camp drills ranged from one-on-one to four-on-four.

The Devils won the team “transition” competition, where points are awarded not just for offense, but for stops on defense as well.

Individually, Jones and Cali Conner were named to the “super five” squad. Seventy-five players made up the camp.

Cushion excelled at hot spots, defeating teammate Shakyra Williams in the finals. Jaziah Johnson won the competition for best moves in the post position. Tamyra Carter was the winner of the shooting stations competition and Carlie Ballenger won for most improved ballhandler.

Cali Conner won the one-on-one title and Keisha Jackson’s squad took the three-on-three competition. Other standouts were Skye McCrae, Trinity Hill, Tyra Barnes, Destiny Johnson, Jamia Level, Cynthia Esquivel and Kalliayah Wright

“She’s had the best summer,” said Conner of Wright, who has played point guard for Tift.

Tift had enough players for two teams at Ware County. Other teams involved were Coffee (also with two squads) and Jeff Davis.

“A fabulous group that went,” said Conner. “They worked so hard.”

Conner also was pleased with her squad’s trip to Tennessee for a Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp earlier this month.

“That was awesome,” she said.

Fourteen TCHS players participated and one of the scrimmages saw them defeat Blackman High of Murfreesboro, Tenn. Blackman has won two Tennessee state titles during the decade and was considered by MaxPreps to be one of the top teams in the United States.

The month continues with more camps, all based in Florida. These will be the final camps of the summer before the team resumes usual practice.