Miranda building program at Veterans

Nicole Miranda had been a graduate assistant and assistant on the college level and high school level before taking over as Veterans’ girls basketball head coach.

After five seasons in that spot, it appears she has built a program.

The Warhawks have progress steadily under Miranda, going 30-2 in 2014-15 and losing to Carrollton in the GHSA Class AAAA semifinals in the final seconds.

In 2015-16, the Warhawks went a step further, losing to Americus-Sumter in the championship game and finishing 27-5.

It was a season pretty much expected by the 2015-16 All-Middle Georgia Girls Basketball Coach of the Year.

“After we fell short after that backwards shot against Carrollton, they were kind of hungry,” Miranda said of the team that returned mostly intact. “The expectations were to be in the state championship. Obviously, we were playing to win the state championship, but the expectation all year long — from that group of seniors, for sure, and even some of the underclassmen — was that’s what we were going to do.”

Two of Veterans’ losses were to Class AAAAA Warner Robins, which went 22-3 and won a playoff game. Another was to Class AAA quarterfinalist Laney, a 25-5 team. And the Warhawks fell to Ribault of Jacksonville, Florida, the FHSAA Class 5A title team that finished 28-1.

While Veterans’ long home winning streak was stopped against Warner Robins, the Warhawks went undefeated in Region 2-AAAA play and then mostly rolled through the region tournament.

“That group that I had for two years in a row, most of them for three — (Jalyn Slaughter’s) senior year, we had a lot of injuries — we had that core group that came up in the ranks,” said Miranda, whose roster had eight seniors. “There really wasn’t a lot of stress to make sure they were ready to play, because the leadership got them ready to play.”

Veteran point guard Kya Cochran knew what Miranda, who was a 3-point sharpshooter at South Carolina in the 1990s, wanted, but the Warhawks were a collection of players who knew basketball and got along.

“The one other thing that made it fun was they were so engaged in practice and engaged in making each other better that practice became a lot more strategy,” said Miranda, who is 102-46. “This group, I could actually put some sets in, put some things in that actually kinda looked good.

“Somebody told me we resembled the high school version of the (NBA’s San Antonio) Spurs. That was a huge compliment. I was like, ‘Oh wow.’ ”

But it’s a workable analogy for a team that wasn’t tall, fast, selfish or flashy.

“Minus the dunking, but the way everybody passed the ball, the way everybody moved, the way everybody got to know each other,” Miranda said. “The chemistry made them comfortable on the court.”

Chemistry will be something to watch next year with so many new players, as well as moving up to Class 5A. Veterans’ junior varsity team, under assistant Kaci Whiddon, went 13-1.

Miranda prefers “reloading” rather than “rebuilding,” optimistic for a program that will start its seventh season next fall.

“I’m curious to see,” she said. “It’s going to be a challenge. Sometimes when they know they have to perform and they’re put in that position, I like to see how they respond. A lot of times, they’ll surprise you.”　　　

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Miranda building program at Veterans."