The Hobbton Wildcats are heading into the 2025-2026 basketball season with a roster that is younger, faster and as hungry as any group head coach Aydan Tart has had in Newton Grove.
For Tart, this season is about more than chasing a record. It is about building a standard.
“First thing is just getting all the kids on the same page and working together,” Tart stressed during an interview at one of the Wildcat practices. “I feel like so far we have done pretty good with that, building the team chemistry and doing little extra things like team camaraderie, stuff that has nothing to do with basketball like going out to eat and hanging out. The first step to being successful is building that family culture.”
That family feel is what Tart hopes will carry Hobbton through a new conference slate and a schedule filled with long road trips and athletic opponents.
Hobbton’s run in football kept several key Wildcats busy into the fall. Many of the players who suited up under head football coach Adam Scronce are now moving straight into basketball season with very little downtime.
“If you ask me, it is easy, but if you ask the kids, not so much,” Tart said with a smile.
He credited Scronce and his approach.
“I thought Coach Scronce did a really good job with everything in the weight room and in practice, all the speed and agility things,” Tart said. “That made it a lot easier transitioning from football shape to basketball shape this year. They do not go as heavy in the weight room like they had before. It is more agility type stuff and I think that has made a big difference.”
Tart said the Wildcats also stayed locked in on hoops whenever they could.
“During the offseason, whenever we had a free chance, we were in the gym shooting around, playing pickup games and doing workouts,” he said. “Just getting the ball in our hands and getting used to being on the court. So it has not been too much of a transition.”
At a small school like Hobbton, shared athletes and shared calendars are not a luxury — they are a necessity.
“It benefits the students and the coaching staff and the school as a whole,” Tart said. “You have to share athletes and you have to be able to work and correspond with one another. We had a good understanding. When we did basketball workouts during football, we did not do a lot with their legs. It was 30 minutes twice a week, come in, get a ball in our hands, run over the offense, run over defense, go home.”
For Tart, it comes down to a simple message.
“We talk all the time about putting your mind where your feet are,” he said. “If you are in class, focus on class. When you are on the football field, focus on football. When you are in the gym, focus on basketball.”
Hobbton graduated a large and important senior class last year. This winter, there are only two returning seniors, but Tart believes they set the tone.
“We got two returning seniors, Reggie Thompson and Joe Corbett,” Tart said. “Joe is just a natural leader. He does all the dirty work. He does all the things nobody really wants to do and he is willing to hold everybody accountable. That is something I am really thankful for.”
“Reggie is here to get better and he is here to make everybody around him compete. He is not much of a vocal leader but he brings effort.”
Tart has been preaching that leadership is not reserved for age.
“I have been trying to teach them that you do not have to be a senior to be a leader,” he said. “Two of the big leaders right now that I am trying to put on that platform are [junior] Amir Tate and [sophomore] Richard Simpson. They are the returning scorers, the leading scorers. Naturally, that puts them in a leadership position.”
Key players
Corbett understands this season is his final one in a Hobbton uniform, and he wants to leave the program better than he found it.
“I just want to build off last year, try to go out there and win some more games and just start building a culture in Hobbton basketball,” Corbett said.
His focus is on the example he sets.
“I want to kind of set the standard, keep the tone as far as effort, energy and attitude,” he said. “Just be the perfect example, go to practice every day, work hard and hopefully it rubs off on other guys.”
Corbett admits the years went by quickly.
“Time flies,” he said. “You just try to take every day and really soak it in. If you are present where you are today then the time will not fly by as fast.”
Coming off the football season, his body and mind had to flip quickly to the hardwood.
“It has been pretty easy, really,” Corbett said. “The toughest thing is just the shifting of the mindset, going from outside to inside. It is still the same thing: come ready to work.”
Simpson turned heads last year as a freshman. This season he steps in as one of the faces of the program.
“I do have to step up and be a leader, especially since all the seniors left,” he said. “I feel like me being more vocal this year and leading my team is how I am going to be a leader.”
Simpson stays busy with AAU basketball, and he believes that experience is paying off.
“In AAU season, my coaches helped me develop my shot,” he explained “They helped me develop my whole game in general. So by the time I get back to high school, it is all together.”
He already knows a lot of the players he will see in conference play.
“It helps me out a little bit because I am familiar with them,” Simpson said. “But we still have to watch film.”
His personal goals are as ambitious as they come.
“I want to average 25 points and have at least six assists a game,” he said. “And I want to go undefeated.”
The long-term plan is just as bold.
“I want to go play D1 and then hopefully go to the NBA,” Simpson said.
From Tart’s perspective, the bar is high for Simpson and the pressure is real, but that is part of the growth.
“There might be a little bit more pressure on him now,” the Hobbton coach said. “He is no longer a freshman. He is a second year starter and a leading scorer. People are going to have a target on his back. If anything, there is more pressure, but I feel like he will do better this year because he has his feet under him more. He is more confident.”
Tart noted that last season Simpson sometimes passed up shots to feed seniors.
“I think some of that is going away,” the coach said. “His points per game are going to go up. He is not going to do anything except show better numbers and get better.”
Amir Tate might be the most confident shot maker in the gym. He brings a spark every time he touches the ball.
“One of the big things I am looking for from Amir is just his ability to play fast and attack,” Tart said. “That is our style of offense. Run and gun. We want to push it. A lot of that goes through him facilitating with everybody else. If nobody beats him down court for him to pass to, then he is just going to take it to the basket and I am one hundred percent okay with that. He is flashy, but he hits and he is consistent with it.”
Tate knows what is being asked of him.
“I feel like I am going to have to just control the floor, or get a bucket when it is needed,” he said. “I know we do not really have a lot of bench and a lot of backups, so I am going to have to do my job and stay out of foul trouble.”
His expectations mirror the coach’s demands.
“For the team, I just want us to listen and play hard and not give up,” Tate said. “For myself, it is the same expectations. Play hard, stay focused and go one hundred percent all the time.”
Alongside the established names, Tart is excited about some younger players moving into bigger roles, including Idarius Eason and Javonte Johnson.
“With Javonte, I think he is super athletic,” the coach pointed out. “He is going to help us as a whole with our speed and athleticism.”
“And Adarius, he is a freshman, but he does not really play like one. He plays like a two or three year returner. He is scrappy. He fights for rebounds. He is tough and he is confident.”
The biggest challenge for Eason is simply building chemistry with older teammates.
“He never played with this senior class,” Tart said. “He has played with some of the sophomores and juniors at the middle school level, but not the older guys. Him and Richard are really close and that has brought him in closer to everybody else. Richard is kind of the bridge between the upper class and the lower class.”
Eason has also shown that he is more than a rebounder.
“His ball handling has been very impressive for him to be as big as he is and as young as he is,” Tart said. “He can finish around the rim really well. He is as tough in the paint as he is impressive on the perimeter. Over the summer we did some summer league with Triton and Clinton and he really impressed me with how tough and physical he was.”
Hobbton’s JV
On the junior varsity side, Tart is excited about what JV head coach Dasmine Joyner brings to the team after his success with the JV football team.
“I think Coach Joyner, himself, is a great guy,” Tart said. “He is new to coaching basketball, but I wanted to bring him on because he is a family man and a good Christian man. That is another type of person kids in our community need to be around and look up to. If he was a horrible basketball coach, he is still a great man and I have already been successful getting him on staff.”
“Every day I notice him getting better as a basketball coach,” Tart added. “His eagerness and will to work and will to win are going to carry over from football to basketball.”
The JV challenge is that many of the top underclassmen are already on varsity.
“It is probably going to be a little bit tougher in basketball,” Tart said. “The best freshmen and sophomores are playing up on varsity because we are so young all around. If he had a true JV team with all the freshmen and sophomores, he would look like Dean Smith. A good handful of the JV guys are kids who have never really played basketball, but he does a really good job working with them and trying to bridge that gap.”
Still, Tart sees real potential with leaders like Braxton McLamb, Zachariah Holmes and freshman Javaris Johnson.
“I think they will be OK,” he said. “It is not going to be as easy or as dominant as it was in football, but I think they have a good chance to win the conference on JV.”
A banner year
Conference realignment brings in familiar and physical programs like West Columbus, East Bladen and East Columbus.
“The addition of West Columbus, East Bladen and East Columbus is three teams that are normally full of athletes,” Tart said. “How well they play against us, I am not sure yet.”
He remembers his first season clearly.
“The last time we played East Columbus, my first year coaching, they came out and I remember thinking this looks like a college basketball team,” he said. “We ended up going into overtime and that was my first win as a head coach. Later that year we played West Columbus in the playoffs and they beat us.”
Watching them in football reinforced how athletic those schools can be.
“We are comparitively small schools, so we all share athletes,” Tart said. “They are athletic as all get out. I think that is going to help our conference in the long run. It will prepare us better for more athletic teams in the playoffs and make our conference stronger. It also gave us a lot more late nights with travel.”
The last boys basketball banner at Hobbton was raised in 1984 under legendary coach Kenny Bass. Tart is not shy about what he wants this group to pursue.
“That is obviously a thought that every coach has,” he said. “If you are a coach and you do not want to win a state championship, are you really a coach.”
“I tell the kids I want to win the county championship,” Tart continued. “I know that is not a real thing, it is made up, but I want to win against all the Sampson County teams. I want to win the regular season championship, I want to win the tournament championship and I want to win the state championship.”
He believes it is possible, but he knows it cannot be his belief alone.
“I tell the kids, I believe we can do that,” Tart said. “But I cannot be the only one to believe it. If we can get all eleven or twelve kids on the team to believe it, then I really think it can be done and it is feasible.”
At the end of the day, he knows where it really lies.
“You can coach as much as you want to,” Tart said. “It is up to them to execute and perform.”
As the 2025-26 season tips off, Hobbton walks into the gym with shared athletes, renewed leaders, young talent and a clear standard. They want to play fast. They want to play together. They want to believe like champions until the banners say it out loud.