Unspoken streak looms over Effingham County-South Effingham boys basketball game

Donald Heath
·3 min read
Effingham County High School boys basketball coach Jake Darling talks to his team during a recent scrimmage against The Habersham School. Darling, who also coached at South Effingham, knows both sides of the Rebels’ 28-game winning streak against the Mustangs.
Effingham County High School boys basketball coach Jake Darling talks to his team during a recent scrimmage against The Habersham School. Darling, who also coached at South Effingham, knows both sides of the Rebels’ 28-game winning streak against the Mustangs.

SPRINGFIELD — Effingham County boys basketball coach Jake Darling knows both sides of “the streak” but doesn’t like to talk about it.

“It gets bigger and bigger, a bigger target,” said Darling about the Rebels’ 28-game domination of cross-county rival South Effingham High School.

ECHS will be looking for its 29th straight win over the host Mustangs on Friday night, Dec. 10.

And SEHS will be looking to end blemishes that have popped up twice every year since Jan. 6, 2007.

“I don’t ever bring up the streak,” Darling said. “It’s a region game. It’s a game we have to have. We’re at their place first so playing on the road is tough. I build (the game) up with challenges like that.”

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Darling knows both sides of the streak very well. He began teaching in the county 14 years ago and was an assistant boys basketball coach at South Effingham.

Back then, basketball in the county was only a nice diversion between the football and baseball seasons. Neither school matched up well against the Brunswicks, Glynn Academys and Richmond Hills of the region.

“My first couple of years (at South Effingham), it was this is a game we can win,” said Darling about playing ECHS. “Back then it was, ‘in this game, we have a shot.’ ”

After four years at South, Darling joined Donnie Arrington’s coaching staff at Effingham County for the 2012-13 season. The Rebels were loaded with a group that included JaKeenan Gant and Jay Wright — and both went on to star at NCAA Division I Louisiana in Lafayette.

Darling took over the head coaching reins two years later in 2014 and has kept the reign of terror over the Mustangs going.

ECHS has won the last 13 games by double digits.

Last season, the Rebels had three starters out and still beat SEHS 66-53.

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After four games this season, ECHS and SEHS both had 1-3 records, possibly pointing to parity, but the Rebels are returning five starters from an 18-win squad in 2020-21.

The Mustangs have had two close losses in their 2021-22 start, including a 63-62 setback to New Hampstead — a squad that advanced two rounds in the state tournament a year ago.

So Darling will emphasize the magnitude of playing a cross-county school that has improved under first-year coach Rico Campbell.

“The biggest thing we talk about is it’s a rivalry game,” Darling said. “There will be a lot of emotion in it. There are guys you’ve been playing with all your life so it’s about pride, being able to look them in the eye and say 'we beat you.' ”

And mention of the winning streak, while hardly whispered about during the season, does surface, eventually.

“It’s a cool thing to talk about at the end of the season at our banquet,” Darling said.

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: effingham county high school 28-game win streak over South basketball