COVINGTON, Ga. – Home is where the heart is, as they say. For the Eastside Eagles boy’s basketball team, though, they want home to be the place where they win. 

For head coach Dorrian Randolph, winning every home game will help establish a “culture” of winning. 

“I’m trying to build the atmosphere that other schools have,” Randolph said. “Home games are the ones that most of the student body and teachers come to and I want them to keep coming.” 

Eastside set up a solid foundation to build off of in 2020. 

Last season, the Eagles qualified for the state playoffs. Their postseason appearance was the first in five years for Eastside. 

It finished second in Region 8-AAAAA as well. 

The Eagles accomplished all of this when Randolph was entering his first ever season as a head coach during a pandemic season. 

Now, with a more normal offseason, the Eagles feel prepared for the season ahead. And, during preparations, Randolph has noticed more cohesiveness among players. 

“The summer was good for team camaraderie,” Randolph said. “Good thing is, these guys like each other. That’s the first ingredient, to me, for building a team is that they like each other. That’ll be big for us.” 

In 2021, the Eagles will look a bit different compared to last year. 

They welcome four new additions to this year’s squad including a freshman that Randolph is very high on. 

 Be that as it may, the biggest concern Randolph has about this year’s squad is the lack of size. 

The tallest person on the team stands at 6’3.” 

Nevertheless, the Eagles are confident that they can overcome this disadvantage. 

Over this offseason, Eastside has mainly focused on its mentality, strength endurance to play smart and fast all game long. 

Randolph stressed that if the players completely buy in to this philosophy, then they can accomplish the goals they’ve set themselves. 

“Our guys compete,” Randolph said. “That’s a stepping stone for us. Regardless of what the score may be, we give it our all every single play.”