While many high school players get their share of the limelight when it comes to how a community sees their achievements and how it can inspire others, most of them got their start earlier in life. Pell City’s future Lady Panthers now have a better chance of being well-prepared for their prep sports days since this year will be the first that a seventh grade girl’s basketball team will play with their middle school equals.

Josh Money has taken on the duties as head coach of the seventh grade Lady Panthers and he said that culling young athletes at a critical time in their life builds a sense of comradery and self esteem.

Money attended college at Jacksonville State University. While attending college, he worked for two and a half years as a prison guard for the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office and taught preschool at Jacksonville State. After that he went to work for an alternative, wilderness school where he also taught basketball then finished his student teaching.

Money played basketball in high school in Scottsboro. An injury prevented him from being able to play college ball. But being the hard worker that he is, he still tried to stay as close to the court as he could, including his stint coaching troubled teens on the court.

“I’m just glad to be here,” he said. “Once I moved here, I kind of built my own team. They’ve never had a seventh grade team here and they’ve never had a seventh grade coach. So, I’m the first for both.”

He said his squad of 13 is an eager group who look forward to showing what they can offer on the court.

“I think we did a real good job [picking out the team,]” Money said. “They’re all really good girls. They all have good grades are all very smart and very athletic. So, I’ve done a pretty good job, I think, of picking the right kids.”

He talked about some of his philosophies when coaching younger athletes.

“I believe that if you can take somebody—a girl especially—in seventh grade when they’re at the point and at the crossroads of where they want to decide whether they’re gonna be a girl or be an athlete. Everybody at that age is trying to find their niche. So, they’re open to suggestions and if you can press them into being an athlete and give them a place to fit in, then you can teach them to be an athlete whether they knew they were going to be or not. So I’ve really tried to sell the kids on playing basketball and get them committed to a team, to a port and to each other.”

He said that his team have become close and are seeing that they have something in common during that crucial point in life when many teens might only see how they may differ from other students.

“These girl walk the halls together, they eat lunch together, they spend time together,” Money said of his players. “Everywhere they go they go in pairs and a lot of them have classes together.”

He said because of what he’s seen in the players that he’s been focusing on letting the seventh grade Lady Panthers become a team unit.