Otis Jackson will be upcoming senior for Tift County on the basketball court. Head coach Chris Wade said he has been happy with the leadership of his seniors in practices so far.

TIFTON — June is soon to turn to July, which turns to football season in Georgia. With the month almost gone, what is a boys basketball coach to do in the state?

“We decided to get three regulation games in,” said Tift County High head coach Chris Wade.

TCHS has turned the need for games into an event: Tift County Summer Slam, which will take place Wednesday.

The games are open to the public and four teams are to be involved — Tift, Coffee, Monroe and Randolph-Clay — with action beginning at 11 a.m. as Coffee battles Monroe.

Tift battles Randolph-Clay at 12:30 p.m., followed by Coffee and Randolph-Clay at 2 p.m., Tift and Monroe at 3:30 p.m., Monroe and Randolph-Clay at 5 p.m. and Tift and Coffee at 6:30 p.m.

Wade said the games will be like normal games, with Georgia High School Association officials.

Admission is $2 and a concession stand will be available.

All three opponents advanced to the state tournament in 2017, with Coffee advancing to the second round. The Randolph-Clay Red Devils have been the most successful historically, with four state championships in school history.

Wade said he was never able to beat Randolph-Clay when he was in Americus. He will be looking for his first ever win against the school Wednesday. The visitors from Cuthbert will be bringing a Tift County connection with them. Laberton Sims a Blue Devil alumnus and former assistant was tabbed as Randolph-Clay’s new head coach.

“It’ll be a fun day,” said Wade.

These scrimmages are quite important for the Blue Devils, who will lose much of their roster once football practice starts up in full force in July.

“It’s the last look at what we have,” said Wade.

Seven or eight varsity players play football, and “almost all of our JV and ninth grade.”

“June’s important to us,” he said. “We have to get a good look.”

The off-season has been so far, so good for Wade, who is in his first season as Tift County’s head hoops coach after being named to the position in April after the departure of Dr. Eric Holland. Wade joined Holland’s staff in the 2013-14 season, earning him two state championship rings.

Wade said June had gone “better than I expected.”

The Devils have been on the court nearly every weekday, though he thinks he has had the full roster available perhaps six days.

Standing out to him has been his seniors.

“I really like the play of our seniors,” Wade said. “They’ve really increased their roles.”

Senior strength has been a hallmark of Tift in recent seasons. The Blue Devils relied heavily on Micah Johnson, Preston Horne and Fred Lloyd in winning the 2017 state title. In 2014, players like D.J. Bryant, Ladarius Stewart and Tadric Jackson were the major pieces of that title-winning team.

Wade is not ready to single any of his players out yet for outstanding play, but did say that he was quite pleased with several of them.

Few changes have been made to the Blue Devil roster over the summer.

No transfers have come in from other schools and the only coaching change to Wade’s staff has been the promotion of assistant Dallas Neloms to varsity.