In high school athletics, running a team can be a tricky business. Many coaches spend their careers bouncing from town to town in search of the perfect fit. And no matter where coaches set up shop, they are faced with the pressures of managing a constant flow of ever-changing kids coming through the system — not to mention the trials and tribulations of working with high school students and the many directions that they are pulled as they endure the rigors of teenage life.

Many communities are lucky to find one coach that is a constant presence for a high school team, but Bulloch County has found a trio of boys basketball coaches that have built up hundreds of young athletes, as well as three great programs.

Jeff Brannen (Portal), Lee Hill (Statesboro) and John Page (Southeast Bulloch) have been at the helm of their respective teams for a cumulative 87 years and a combined 1,357 wins. Hill’s 732 career victories are most among active coaches in Georgia while Brannen (324) and Page (301) have each chalked up over 300 wins.

Despite heading up the Panthers since 1990, Brannen is the most recent hire among the trio. Page has been in charge of the Yellow Jackets since 1984 and Hill coached his first game for Statesboro all the way back in 1978.

The wins and lengthy tenures show a great track record for each coach, but the most impressive thing about those career numbers is that every one of those wins have come with their current school. Where some coaches easily rack up a half dozen stops throughout their career, Bulloch County’s three GHSA coaches seem to have made their schools a home for life.

"So much of it is about loyalty," Brannen said. "You spend all of that time every year trying to build up your team and getting them to play together. After a while, you get that special connection with the school and the team."

"I think that, at one time or another, all of us have had opportunities to go somewhere else," Page said. "Some people might think that coaches will want to move on to schools that are considered bigger and better, but it’s great to have one place that you can take pride in and call home."

No one in Bulloch County epitomizes that sentiment more than Hill. A Statesboro native, Hill starred in football as a high school student and played running back for Albany State in college before returning home. Hill taught at Metter for a year before landing at Statesboro High. Coaching stints in cross country and track led Hill to the head coaching position for the boys basketball team — a spot that he has now held for 35 years.

Even more impressive than the duration of Hill’s tenure is the immense success that has coincided with it. Beginning with his first season at the helm in 1978-79, none of his teams have ever endured a losing season.

"I don’t really think about that streak," Hill said. "But the goal is always to succeed and to win. But that’s something that you have to work on every season. Every year is a new challenge."

That philosophy holds true for all three coaches, who acknowledged that no two seasons are ever the same. No matter how much success any of the schools have, the coaches aren’t running professional teams where they can hold onto their best players forever. Each year, they have to identify new players that can step up to help the team and must also make constant tweaks to their game plans in order to suit the changing skill sets of their rosters.

A common theme among Statesboro, Portal and SEB is the constant search for height. All three schools have had some impressive stretches of good basketball, but it usually comes via a team of guards running the floor.

"We’ve never really had much height to work with," Page said.

"I don’t know what it is," said Brannen. "Jenkins County is right down the road. We play them every year and they always have some height. You look at the Savannah schools and there are plenty of big guys. We just never seem to have them here."

"I think it’s something in the water," Hill joked.

Despite rosters for all teams that perennially must rely on speed, hustle and grit to make up for a lack of tall bodies, all three coaches have been able to consistently put a competitive team on the floor.

And it doesn’t just stop at the regular season.

Along with the streak of winning seasons, Hill’s teams have made their way to four Final Four’s, including a state title in the 1990-91 campaign. That magical season for Statesboro was Brannen’s first in Portal.

"When I first got there, I wondered what I had gotten myself into," Brannen said, recalling the realization that he would have a student enrollment of only around 100 boys with witch to field a team each season. "It was definitely a grind. It still is a challenge each year, but I hope that we’re building a program where our players are a little more prepared at the start of each season."

Brannen has transformed the Panthers from a yearly afterthought to an consistent challenger for region championships. Portal’s high water mark came during a Final Four run in 2007-08.

Southeast Bulloch hasn’t quite reached those dizzying heights, but Page has led the Jackets to three runs to the Sweet Sixteen during his tenure.

With so many years under their belts and having seen just about everything there is to see on a basketball court, some of the highs and lows start to run together. But those playoff runs are at the top of each coach’s list of cherished memories.

"I definitely have to say that winning state is my favorite," Hill said. "You always try to win region and do well in state. Winning state is the ultimate goal, so that has to be at the top of the list."

"The first team that I coached was one of the most memorable," Page said of the 1984-85 Jackets that included Clemson signee Jerry Pryor. "That was one of our Sweet Sixteen teams. We went 21-3 and ended up losing to the top ranked team in the state. You have a lot of good players and teams through the years, but you never know how many chances you’re going to have to make those runs in the playoffs."

Brannen has a similar love-hate relationship with Portal’s Final Four run, glowing as he recounts a buzzer-beater by David Buchannon to advance to the state semifinals, then just as quickly growing frustrated as he recalled the Panthers overtime loss with a chance to reach the state championship game on the line.

With the three schools competing in three separate classifications, the coaches don’t always have the opportunity to compete against one another. Even when the non-region schedule does allow for two of the teams to match up, there aren’t any postseason implications riding on the outcome.

But as competitive as Brannen, Hill, and Page are, that’s how they prefer it.

"You want to win, but it can be tough going against these guys," Hill said.

Statesboro has traditionally gotten the better of head-to-head matchups, but both Portal and SEB have had their moments.

Portal defeated the Devils in a game played at Hanner Fieldhouse in 2008 and the Jackets have also given Statesboro a run for its money several times throughout the years in regular season and summer camp matchups.

"It’s tough when you’re all at one guy’s house during the offseason talking about each others’ teams and game plans, then you have to try to beat them," Page said. "It kind of turns into more of a thing for the fans to brag about or our kids who know each other to try to win. But there’s always that respect between us."

Looking at all that the three have accomplished so far, one of the most impressive achievements is simply changing the train of thought about basketball in Bulloch County.

With region tournaments for all three schools set to begin this week, fans all around the county are still focused on the hardwood instead of looking ahead to spring football.

"When people think south Georgia, football is always the first thing that comes to mind," Brannen said. "That’s probably how it will always be, but I think that we have more kids now that get just as excited about the basketball season."

Hill reminisced about his first few years at Statesboro, stating that the only time college recruiters would make it into a basketball gym in Statesboro was if they were trying to track down a football player to talk to.

"As far as basketball went, it was Atlanta and that was about it," Hill said. "That’s where everyone stopped. I think now we’ve at least got everyone paying a little more attention to us."

Plenty of attention will be paid at the region tournaments as all three teams are in the hunt for a bid into their respective state tournaments. With so much on the line, players’ nerves are likely to be on edge if a potential season-ending game is coming down to the wire.

Luckily for all of the Blue Devils, Yellow Jackets and Panthers on the floor, they can look to a coach that has been through it all before.

High school basketball will continue to evolve and the students suiting up each season will keep changing with each passing year, but for fans in Bulloch County, a dedicated and talented coach will continue to be a part of the equation.

Brannen, Hill and Page all attribute their successes on the court to chemistry, steadiness and consistency with their teams.

It's clear that those team characteristics all start with the head coach.