Garrett Grantham started as a student at Meadowview Christian in second grade and spent his whole life there until last year. Now, he’s back and looking to improve a basketball team that really needs him.

Meadowview’s boys’ basketball team was successful through the first half of the season, but as Meadowview head coach John Robert Morton admits, the Trojans didn’t have much depth.

When Grantham’s mom got a new job, it allowed Grantham to move from Dothan back to Selma over Christmas break and rejoin a basketball team full of players he has grown up with.

“It’s pretty good being able to come back to friends who know me,” Grantham said.

Morton said Grantham, a junior, brings an offensive spark to a Trojans’ team that thrived off defensive turnovers but wasn’t always clicking offensively. With few players on the team, if one player is off on his shooting, Morton said that could tip the outcome of the game the other way.

With Grantham’s ability to get to the net, that issue becomes much less concerning.

“It just brings an element to where we can bring our basketball to be extremely offense focused,” Morton said.

Eighth grader Jeremy Lee was one of the few players who regularly came off the bench for the Trojans. Now, he has Grantham by his side as another replacement for one of the starters.

“We get another player, so we can go to the next level of basketball and we can do more things in practice because we have an extra body now,” Lee said. “He’s an awesome player who’s probably going to put up a lot of point for us.”

Grantham said he’s been playing basketball competitively since he was 13 years old. Grantham’s teammate, Sam Dabit, tried out with him, and Grantham hasn’t stopped playing basketball since that day.

“I just felt like trying out one day and it just stuck with me ever since,” Grantham said.

While Morton said Grantham is still catching up on running a few of the plays that he’s missed out on for a year, he’s is still way ahead of schedule because he knows the team and many of the player.

Lee said Grantham’s experience playing for Meadowview helps immensely.

“He works really good with our guys,” Lee said.

“We’ve known him for a really long time, and he fits in.”

Aside from the experience, Morton also believes Grantham has the physical tools to push Meadowview to the next level.

“His legs are so long and his arms are so long that he covers a lot of ground,” Morton said.

“He drives to the hoop pretty well but he also passes the ball well.”

Grantham said he is not overwhelmed by the change. He already feels welcomed by a team that treats him as if he’s never left.

He approaches rejoining Meadowview with a sense of humility, knowing full well he will be coming off the bench to begin his junior campaign at Meadowview.

But Grantham also knows the Trojans, who simply needed bodies to fill out a bench, are more than pleased to have his services at their disposal.

“They’re glad to have me back, I’m sure,” Grantham said.