The Long County Blue Tide basketball team enters Year Two of the Ricky Rivera era and the team looks to shake off some of the hard feelings from the 2024-25 season and get back to the state playoffs.

Rivera looked at his first year as head coach of the Blue Tide last season and thinks there are a lot of good things that come out of the season going forward. The biggest thing is his players fought through some hard times.

“As far as my guys, they fought through adversity,” Rivera said. “Losing three starters the week of the season due to transfers is kind of hard to overcome as a kid. Going into a season that you’re expected to do really well and that kind of just hits out of nowhere. For the guys to just step up…that says a lot about them.”

The Tide missed the postseason for the first time in seven years after finishing the season 11-14 and falling in the first round of the region playoffs, a 55-50 overtime loss to Beach.

Rivera said it simply: “We gotta get back to us.”

“It’s all brand new. Brand new system. Brand new coach. Brand new players that probably would have had another year to develop or at least learn from the older guys and had to be thrown in the fire,” Rivera said. “It was kind of a learning curve, learning season for us. I felt we should have still made the playoffs, but how the power rankings fell, it pushed us out.”

Rivera is particularly excited about the team returning a large portion of its core from last season saying he expects to “be at the top” of the region. The Tide brings back most of the team who played, aside from Chris Hatfield and Christian Presley.

Rivera said the team has been hard at work since the last buzzer sounded.

“With all the work that they’ve put in since the season’s finished, the offseason is always the biggest season they've been at it,” Rivera said. “They’ve been living and dying in the gym every day. Those guys have been in the gym since the last game we played…I couldn’t be more proud of them bringing along everybody else. They have set the standard.”

Region 3-AAA is traditionally one of the toughest regions in the state for boys’ basketball. Region runner Windsor Forest advanced to the Final Four of the AAA state playoffs before falling to state champion Sandy Creek.

Calvary Day won the region and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the A-AAA Private playoffs. Liberty County, Beach, Johnson and Groves should all be tough opponents throughout the season as well.

“With us having one of the toughest regions in AAA, it kind of prepares us for anything,” Rivera said, “how hard everybody plays, the ‘any given night’ mentality that every team has to come with. It kind of prepares us for really whatever.”

Rivera said going up against the great coaches in the region also can prepare a team for the state playoffs.

“Having to deal with that in your region schedule, it kind of gives you the upper hand,” he said.

The non-region schedule will be one to watch for the Blue Tide, with the team competing in two December invitational tournaments. They will play in the HOCO Bear Brawl at Houston County in Warner Robins where they will take on Class AAAA opponents Veterans and Warner Robins.

The Tide will play in the Lee County Roundball Classic, where the team finished fifth last year. They will face off against Worth County in the first round.

These tournaments on top of non-region opponents such as Tattnall County, Vidalia and Wayne County make Rivera believe the Tide will have a shot to compete.

“Non-region wise, I think our Christmas tournaments prepare us tremendously,” he said. “I try to schedule away from this area so they see a different style of ball.”

The Blue Tide open the regular season on Friday, November 21 with a road game against Tattnall County, who fell in the AA Final Four last season.