By Michael Butler

Justin Ellis has been named head coach of the Tallassee High School boys basketball program. The school board made the move official on Tuesday night.

“It’s a big opportunity being a Tallassee graduate,” Ellis said. “This program’s been in kind of a slide for the past couple of years. We’ve been through four coaches in the past two years. I’m excited to get in and establish a new culture for this program and get things going in the right direction.”

Tallassee went 8-18 last season and had two different head coaches. D’Angelo Parker started the season and L.A. O’Neal finished it. The season before the Tigers were 2-18 in Keiven Mixson’s final season at the helm. Mixson went 111-83 in eight seasons. Ellis served as an assistant coach on Mixson’s staff.

“We’re not that far removed from some of Coach Mixson’s really good teams,” said Ellis. “We want to get this thing back rolling and pack Stumberg Gym.”

The home court advantage was at its peak during a two-season stretch from 2018-2020 when Mixson’s team won 27 consecutive home games, a program record. The Mixson’s teams won three area tournament titles, reached six sub-regionals and two regionals during his tenure.

In addition to basketball, Ellis will continue to serve as an assistant coach with football and baseball.

“It’s a juggling act for sure,” he said. “Most of my basketball guys play football anyway. The biggest hurdle is transitioning into baseball from basketball. Hopefully we’ll be playing into mid-February. That’ll put me a little behind. It’s time consuming. You have to have time management skills.”

Ellis has put together a summer schedule that will keep him and his multi-sport athletes busy.

“We’re basing (it) around football. Football is going from 8-11 three days a week during the summer. We’ll do our practices after football from 12-2.”

The basketball team will have an (Organized Team Activity) OTA at Trinity on June 9. They will attend a camp at Auburn University on June 11 and 12.

Tryouts were held last week, and Ellis has assembled the varsity and junior varsity squads for the upcoming season.

“(I’m) pleasantly surprised. We’ve got some ball players. We’ve got senior leadership with Trent Morris and Monkia Hooks. We’ve got a baseball kid, Jayden Griggs. We’ve got a bunch of young guys. Chase Lindsey came in last year as an eighth grader and played some on the varsity team. Marley Bice is coming in. He’s an upcoming ninth grader. It’s a bright future.

“We want to be a high-intensity, ball-pressure team. Personnel will dictate a lot of that. We’ve got a coach right here in the state, Nate Oats, who does a really good job with his basketball program. We want to really model our program after him.”