Stratford basketball winning despite significant offseason losses

It's no secret that the Stratford basketball program was dealt a couple of seemingly devastating blows this offseason.

In the days after longtime Metro Nashville football coach Maurice Fitzgerald's hiring at Hillsboro, it became pretty clear that his grandsons — former Stratford hoops standouts and prized 2020 prospects Marcus and Donald Fitzgerald — would soon be tagging along.

There were no hard feelings between the two parties, at least according to third-year Stratford coach Romie Reed, who stressed the talented duo simply “wanted to do what was best for them.”

“There was no bad blood with them leaving — like ‘Oh my goodness,’ or, ‘Good, we’re happy they’re gone,’” said Reed, a 1994 Stratford graduate. “Of course it’s a big thing to lose a 6-8 kid like Donald and a really great guard like Marcus, but it was nothing like that. It was just, ‘Hey, they’re gone and we’ve got to do what we’ve got to do.’ And man, we did that.”

In other words, Stratford has managed to turn the two offseason losses into a resounding win.

“What we figured out was that we still had the pieces regardless of those two leaving,” Reed said. “It was kind of like addition by subtraction. We had a good thing happen when seemingly not the best thing had happened.”

Led by the senior trio of Ja’Hari Reed, Ke’Vonte Boyd and Ta’Son Coleman, along with junior standout Juwon Carpenter, the first-place Spartans already have eight wins this season — three fewer than they did in all of 2016-17 — including a 3-0 start in District 10-AA play.

“It’s our chemistry,” said Ja’Hari Reed, a 6-foot-2 guard and Romie Reed’s nephew. “My first year (2015-16) we had some seniors that weren’t really leaders, and I was young and didn’t put in work like I do now. Last year there was just a whole lot going on.”

Later, he added: “Coach put a lot of pressure on me in the summer. I was voted captain, put in the work and now the work is paying off.”

That was certainly the case Friday as the Spartans sprinted to an 86-69 win over defending Class AA champion Maplewood — their first win over the rival Panthers since December 2004.

“It feels good. They're the defending champions,” said Ja’Hari Reed, who scored 29 points in the momentous victory. “This year it’s all about focus. We told ourselves, ‘We’re going to be good.'”

Added Romie Reed: "“One of the things we really focused on this summer was that we wanted to build a winning culture. A lot of times — and I’ve done this — you say, ‘Let’s just work on us, work on what we can control and get better and all that. This summer I said none of that. What I told them this summer was, ‘Win.’

"Just find ways to win and build a winning culture.”

Stratford, which lost 67-66 to District 9-AAA-leading Gallatin on Saturday, is tied atop the District 10-AA standings with unbeaten East Nashville. The Spartans will host the Eagles on Jan. 5.

Reach Michael Murphy at mfmurphy@tennessean.com or 615-259-8026 and on Twitter @Murph_TNsports.