Two first-year teams. One fast rise to hoops success for this Georgia college.

“I think we all clicked as soon as we started practicing together,” sophomore Jamya Griffin said. “It really made us know that everybody could play, and that just adds up to what we can do during a game.”

Credit: Don Melograna

Credit: Don Melograna

The success is typical for the Lawrenceville school, which has already produced 21 NAIA national championships — 10 each in men’s and women’s tennis and one in baseball. The school approved a basketball team in 2024 and hired two young, proven coaches to start the program in 2025-26.

Chase Teichmann was brought in as the men’s coach. He had compiled a 100-27 record in four years at Florida College, a private Christian school in the Tampa area. His teams won two conference titles and made three trips to the NAIA tournament.

Tory Wooley was hired as the women’s coach. A product of Southwest Atlanta Christian — and former teammate of Dwight Howard — Wooley had spent 11 seasons at Point University, a private Christian school in West Point near the Alabama-Georgia border. Wooley, a four-year letter winner at Point, went 206-121 as head coach with five 20-win seasons and a trip to the NAIA playoffs.

Neither coach was reluctant to leave their established programs to start anew at Georgia Gwinnett. The school had a proven commitment to athletics and was building a new 2,800-seat Convocation Center that was part of a $48 million project that included a 12,500-square-foot fitness/wellness area and a 3,500-square-foot locker room.

“The location, the campus, the arena was truly special,” Wooley said. “And I was excited to come back home and build something really special here. It has been special since the day that I came on campus. This has been a fun ride.”

Teichmann was able to move closer to Nashville, Tennessee, where his family and his wife’s family live. “The facilities and the campus in general are unbelievably beautiful,” he said. “And the tradition of excellence they have here. This place is so good because of who’s leading it, and all the people here believe the same thing.”

Credit: Colin Hubbard

Credit: Colin Hubbard

Teichmann brought four players in last year before the team began, and they were redshirted. Three of them — Drew Kramer, Deonte Martinez and Stephon Martin — had played for Teichmann at Florida College. The other, Devontre Chaney, was a transfer from Palm Beach State who already had committed to play for him.

“I brought those four in to give us a good foundation and to see how we operated,” Teichmann said. “Obviously, they were good players, but I didn’t want to go from zero to 15 new faces. I wanted to have that core.”

And the players were eager to follow Teichmann in the journey to begin the new program.

“I played for coach for three years at Florida College, so it was just a no-brainer for me when he said he was leaving and wanted to take me,” Drew Kramer said. “C.T. is just a good coach, and we had a chance to make history.”

Credit: Colin Hubbard

Credit: Colin Hubbard

Top local talent like Greater Atlanta Christian product Mario Hill Jr. and Lanier grad Amari Morgan were among the freshmen who signed.

After winning their first three games, the Grizzlies took a road trip to Oklahoma and lost twice, including to now-No. 5 Oklahoma Wesleyan, a perennial NAIA power. The other four losses have been by six or fewer points. The men, who thumped then-No. 10 Dalton State in their only other match against a ranked team, have won five in a row.

Chaney leads the team with 15.4 points and 9.8 rebounds and has emerged as their best player. Kramer (13.8 points) and Jahiem Berry (13.4) give the Grizzlies a pair of outside shooting threats. The remaining offense is balanced with Martinez (9.2), Patrick Johnson (9.1) and Manny Montgomery (8.9).

Wooley took a different approach to assembling the women’s team. Maddie Presha, a junior from Rockdale County, was the first commitment. She transferred from Toccoa Falls College, where she was a starter on the team that finished second in the National Christian College Athletic Association championships.

“She was our first recruit, and then they just started coming,” Wooley said. “And these young ladies are really good basketball players, but they’re even better people, and I just enjoy coaching them.”

Credit: Dan Melograna

Credit: Dan Melograna

It didn’t take long for the players to realize the ingredients were in place to have a special season.

“I feel like just trusting (Wooley) and trusting the process and getting all of us bought in, that was what really jelled us,” Peyton Hearvey said.

Christen Collins said, “We all clicked as soon as we started practicing together.”

Collins leads the team in scoring with 16.3 points, and Griffin averages 11.7 points and five rebounds. Hearvey averages nine points and 5.4 rebounds.

Credit: Colin Hubbard

Credit: Colin Hubbard

The next big hurdle is the Continental Athletic Conference, which Georgia Gwinnett will host from Feb. 26-March 11. A win would qualify them for the NAIA national tournament.

“It’s bittersweet because this is the first year, and you always remember the first year,” Wooley said. “We definitely want to go out with a bang and go as far as we can. We want to win our conference championship, but we also want to go as far as we can in this national tournament.”

Teichmann is looking even further down the road.

“It’s exciting to see where it can go from there, obviously the rest of the season, but just in the next two or three or 10 years,” he said “This is just year one and it’s hard to imagine what it’s going to be like in year whatever, but I hope this is the worst year we ever have, which is saying something because it’s a pretty good year.”