Hurst returns to Bobcat basketball to help coach
After playing basketball for the Bobcats for four years, starting three of those years with a playing career record of 80-32, including a 53-21 mark in Peach Belt Conference play, Josh Hurst, who graduated from Georgia College this past Spring, is staying at Georgia College to serve as the new graduate assistant coach for the Bobcats’ Basketball team.
During Hurst’s career at Georgia College from 2007-2011, he scored 603 points, snagged 566 rebounds and blocked 75 shots. He also shot 42 percent (204-482) from the field, 37 percent (59-158) from the three and 74 percent (136-183) from the courtesy line. Coming in as a freshman, Hurst started off as a power forward and during his sophomore year he played center. During his junior year and senior years, he alternated between small forward and power forward. Due to his well roundedness, Hurst earned a spot on the PBC All-Academic team three years in a row. After all his success during his Bobcat basketball career and graduating from Georgia College with a undergraduate degree in management, Hurst still remembers what attracted him to come Georgia College to play basketball.
“The most appealing thing about Georgia College was the community,” Hurst said. “The people around here are really nice, everybody spoke to each other and everyone knew each other. It’s a great environment to be in.”
Prior to deciding to play at Georgia College, Hurst seriously considered offers from the small Christian college North Greenville University in S.C. and a couple other schools in the conference. He also received several offers for football scholarships from schools like Indiana and Elon University.
Though Hurst came to Georgia College as a management major and graduated with a degree in management, coaching was always something he thought about doing.
“That’s kind of a funny situation. It’s always been in the back of my head,” Hurst said. “When my former high school (Clark Central) head coach asked me to be the ninth grade coach for this summer is when I actually starting really thinking about it. And then about a month later I was talking to Coach Gainous and he said that the position had opened up and asked me if I wanted to do it, and it just kind of all came forward. It’s my calling I guess.”
While serving as the graduate assistant coach at for the Bobcats’ basketball team, Hurst hopes to finish his mater’s degree in two years. After completing his master’s, Hurst hopes he will get a job as an assistant coach for a college basketball team or, more preferably, a high school basketball team.
“I guess if I had to chose something I would love to be a private school high school coach,” Hurst said.
Over the next two years, the master’s degree that Hurst will be working towards is education technology, which can greatly assist him in earning a career as a teacher if he decides to pursue that field. If Hurst decides to purse the career of teaching high school, he also plans to coach basketball for the high school he teaches at.
“It’s a degree so that I’ll be able to teach, so if I want to go to teach high school I can do that and be a teacher and a coach,” Hurst said.
For the upcoming basketball season, Hurst is aware of the difficulties that can come with transitioning from a player to a coach.
“It’s going to be tough,” Hurst said. “It’s just going to be a really big adjustment trying to go from a player to a coach especially because I know at least eight or nine of the returners and I became friends with them this past year and a couple of them I’ve been friends with for the past three years so it’s going to be tough. But I think it’s all going to go fine because they respect me enough where they’ll understand.”
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