Janiah Ellis

MOULTRIE – Colquitt County High girls basketball coach Rondesha Williams has before talked about how she will “fire” her assistants every day (only to welcome them back the next day, for she knows she can’t do without them).

On Wednesday’s special occasion, Williams again quipped about her relationship with her current leading scorer and reigning Region 1-7A Player of the Year.

Janiah Ellis, who averaged 21.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 2.9 steals per game in leading Colquitt County to the Region 1-7A tournament championship last February as a junior, signed her national letter-of-intent with Troy University of the NCAA Division I Sun Belt Conference.

In amassing 564 points for the 2018-19 season, Ellis went 11 games in a row scoring between 20 and 38 points. That included two straight outings of knocking down 11 shots from the floor each for 38 points each.

“She came to us from Thomas County, moved here her sophomore year,” said Williams. “I remember like it was yesterday. It was a tough year for both of us making the adjustment. But she made the adjustment, worked hard in the offseason. As a sophomore she was second-team All-Region. Her junior year she worked hard after many times of me fussing, putting her off my team, putting her out of the locker room. She became Player of the Year. She was a junior All-Star for GACA and also first-team All-State.”

Ellis muddled several mid-major offers, including Jacksonville State, Coastal Carolina and Central Arkansas plus Florida Southwestern, the junior college where her former Lady Packer teammate Za’Nautica Downs now stars. Amid all of that, Williams said he was the leader in team conditioning and weight training for the fall. In the first two games for the 2019-20 campaign, Ellis scored 34 points putting her career total at 817.

The recruitment from Troy began with Ellis’ AAU team. She said their personnel was the most “loyal” in that they attended practically every game.

“On the official visit, it wasn’t just the coaches. The players showed me how fun it could be,” said Ellis, the daughter of Diangzla Byrd and Trevino Ellis. “Ever since that visit, I felt like they had me. Troy. That was it.”

She said Troy plays fast-paced basketball. Their current season started out 3-1, and they are coming off a 22-9 2018-19 year that included a bid to the Women’s National Invitational Tournament.

“Got to get used to it,” said Ellis. She said they are strong in rebounding to go along with an up-tempo pace. She feels she will bring shot creativity, both for herself and others, to their program. “I feel I can bring some rebounding also.”

When Ellis arrived in Colquitt County, she found a basketball program led by not one but two of the all-time Lady Packer greats. That would be the aforementioned Downs and another Region 1-7A Player of the Year in Diamond Hall.

“With coach Williams, I’ve learned to play to the best of my abilities every game,” said Ellis. “I have to be ready at any moment, any given time be ready to play any different position. Be ready.

“My sophomore year, I didn’t play as much, so (Hall and Downs) were the two I looked up to. Everything they did I tried to do myself if not just like them, then a little better. They were my mentors.”

Ellis knows there are areas where she can improve: court vision, rebounding, getting back on defense, using the left hand. Her main focus for this senior year with the Lady Packers is that D word. She hopes that leads to a region title repeat and …

“We’re going all the way (in state),” she said.

Ellis hasn’t decided a college major, but is leaning towards sports medicine/physical therapy.