WOODVILLE — The Wilkinson County Christian Academy Rams had one of their most successful seasons in recent memory, going 25-9 overall with an MAIS District 4-A championship and berths in the MAIS Class A South State and State Tournaments.

For their efforts and outstanding season, WCCA senior power forward/guard D’Mario Weathersby and Rams head coach Ken Perry have been named The Natchez Democrat’s 2018-2019 All-Metro Boys’ Basketball Player of the Year and Coach of the Year, respectively.

This was the second straight district championship in as many seasons for Perry, who completed his second year as the Rams’ head coach.

“We could’ve had well over 30 wins. We had some close games. We kept some key players out of the line-up at certain times,” Perry said. “The whole team was an unselfish team. It was definitely a team effort. It wasn’t a one-player show.”

Among the players Perry said were instrumental in WCCA’s success last season were senior guard Tal Redhead and sophomore guard/power forward R.J. Fisher.

“Our point guard, Tal, helped D’Mario more. He was the team leader. When you have certain playmakers, Tal was more of the playmaker for the offense and defense,” Perry said. “D’Mario was our power player. R.J. Fisher was more of the all-around player we had on the team”

When Perry arrived at WCCA in 2017, Weathersby, Redhead, and Will Olive were about to start their junior year.

“I didn’t have any seniors my first year. We did a lot of summer camps out of Baton Rouge. After our summer workouts, it was team play, aggressive basketball, control the boards, and unselfish play. That’s where we got our success,” Perry said.

Weathersby said that Perry expected the best out of his players, whether in practice or at game time.

“He’s going to get it out of you. He expects 100% out of you. He likes to work on the fundamentals. That was a reason for our success,” Weathersby said.

Weathersby averaged 20 points a game and 11 rebounds a game for the Rams. For his career, he scored 1,037 points. And he had quite a few postseason accolades — District 4-A All-District Most Valuable Player, being selected to play in the MAIS Class A-AA All-Star Game, MAIS Class A All-State Team, MAIS Class A All-South State Tournament Team, MAIS Class A All-State Tournament Team, and the team’s MVP.

“I’ve been doing this for 35 years. I’ve never had a student-athlete who works as hard as D’Mario. His dad would stay with him after practice and work on foul shots and rebounding. He was the first one in the gym and the last one out. His work ethic, his desire to work as an individual player,” Perry said. “D’Mario has a wonderful personality. He’s a good example of a Christian character young man. He gets that from his parents.”

Weathersby described the 2018-2019 season as one to remember.

“It was a great season. We went pretty far. We played together as a team the whole year,” Weathersby said. “We had great chemistry. I had great teammates. I had good coaches.”

As for playing two different positions, Weathersby said, “It was pretty fun. Whatever position they put me in was best for the team. It was a team effort.

And for his reaction to being named All-Metro Player of the Year, Weathersby said, “I just thank God first. I’m just honored. Thank you to my teammates, my fans and my coach. I couldn’t do it without them.”

As a junior, Weathersby led the team in scoring at 25 points a game to go with nine rebounds a game.

Earlier this year, Weathersby committed and signed to play football at Louisiana College in Alexandria, La.

The Rams’ season ended with a tough loss to West Memphis Christian School in the quarterfinals of the Class A State Tournament.

“That was our toughest loss of the season. We got some good scouting reports on them. Somebody off the bench, a freshman or sophomore we hadn’t heard a word of him, dropped 20 on us,” Perry said. “We were prepared. We stopped their key players. It ended our season.”

Perry said that the team’s biggest wins were against rival Centreville Academy.

“The school hadn’t beaten Centreville in quite some time. When I got here, I didn’t know about the rivalry. I know now,” Perry said. “We beat all the local teams. Before I got there, WCCA was a stepchild to Centreville, Silliman, ASC, Cathedral. When I got there, we started beating these teams. Our biggest win was over Discovery Christian (School) in the district tournament championship game. We had some big wins.”

While Weathersby agreed with Perry that winning the district title at home was the biggest win of the season — “hands down” as Weathersby put it — he had a different take on which game was the toughest loss.

“The toughest loss of the season was at South State to Tensas (Academy). We were hoping to win. We learned a lot. We stayed together as a team,” Weathersby said.

2018-2019 All-Metro Boys’ Basketball First Team:

Montrell Sandidge, Ferriday; Senior, Guard; 21 points/game, 6.4 rebounds/game, 4.3 assists/game

Jaquan Wilson, Vidalia; Sophomore, Guard; 18.8 points/game, 3 assists/game, 3 steals/game, 2 rebounds/game

Tyreke Tolliver, Sicily Island; Senior, Guard; 21.4 points/game, 6.4 rebounds/game, 4.1 assists/game, 3.1 steals/game

James Singleton, Natchez High; Senior, Forward; 18 points/game

Trey Boyd, Monterey; Junior, Forward; 17 points/game, 7 rebounds/game

2018-2019 All-Metro Girls’ Basketball First Team:

Guard — JaSharreah Hunt, Franklin County (Freshman; Point Guard; 24 points/game, 4 assists/game, 3 rebounds/game, 3 steals/game).

Guard — Andy Gray, Monterey (Junior; Point Guard; 16 points/game, 6.1 rebounds/game, 3.6 steals/game, 1.3 assists/game, 1.0 blocks/game).

Forward — Cintina Green, Block (Senior; Power Forward; 13 points/game, 4 assists/game, 2 steals/game).

Forward — Macey Miley, Centreville Academy (Senior; Forward).

Center — Tierra Spurs, Ferriday (Junior; Center; 13 points/game, 10 rebounds/game, 3 blocks/game).