St. Martin basketball welcomes area teams in Summer Shootout

ST. MARTIN, Miss. (WXXV) — While most students are starting their summer breaks off with beach trips and late nights, athletes on the Coast are proving that champions are built in the offseason.

That couldn’t be more true at the St. Martin Summer Shootout, where top high school and junior high basketball teams from South Mississippi and Alabama are looking forward to November, even in June.

“We come to practice early every day,” St. Martin guard Terence Allen said. “We practice hard no matter the circumstance, trying to build the culture back.”

While everyone else is looking to cool off, these players are bringing the heat. Teams having the chance to show a bit of what they’ve practiced so far in real games, mostly against out-of-state competition that they won’t face during the season.

“We invited four teams from Alabama, we’ve got four teams from Mississippi… it’s an opportunity to play against somebody you’re not playing against all the time,” St. Martin head coach Charlie Pavlus explained. “Sometimes we get caught up in these local events, playing the same teams we play, so it’s nice to bring teams like Fairhope — who made it to the final four last year in Alabama — Theodore, Alma Bryant and Blount.”

Fairhope High School guard Reece Olmsted added to this, sharing how facing fresh opponents prepares his team for bigger goals.

“Every team’s got different style, so, it’s good to play new styles because we might play teams when the games are important, so it’s honestly just that,” Olmsted said.

It’s a valuable experience for coaches and players. On top of that, hitting that clutch three with a defender in your face, pushing through a wall underneath the basket or showing some quick feet and even quicker hands on defense is a lot more fun than any drill a coach could dream up in practice.

Even though summer is just getting started, the hard offseason work is far from over for these programs… but in these athletes’ minds, there is no time to take a break.

“We go to Universal… I think they went to Universal, like, two years in a row,” St. Martin’s Reginald Keys explained. “We’re going to Alabama camp, I think Ole Miss camp… we’re going all around. Our coach does a lot for us.”