Southern's Joyce, Harris to team up again
Southern forward Cody Joyce received an eye-opening introduction to college basketball this summer when he accepted a scholarship from Marist only to be told two days later that the offer had been rescinded.
“I give him a lot of credit,” said Will Maynard, a longtime Southern assistant who took over as head coach this month. “He was upset for a couple days, which is to be expected. But he took the mentality that if one school offered me a Division I scholarship, you know what? I can get another one.”
Joyce took the next step toward a potential DI future this week by signing on to do a post-grad year at Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Va. Joyce will play for a former teammate of Maynard’s at Shepherd University in Chad Meyers.
“He needed a big and it was just the perfect match,” Maynard said. “Cody worked out and they liked what they saw.”
Joyce will be joined at Massanutten by combo guard Bryan Harris, who averaged around 18 points for the Bulldogs as a senior.
“I always thought he could be … a Division I basketball player,” Maynard said. “Coaches were concerned about whether he could make that transition from off-guard to the point.”
Maynard said he’s excited for Joyce and Harris to prove themselves at the prep-school level and potentially earn DI offers. He’s also looking forward to his first season leading his alma mater.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “When you lose eight seniors that have been together four years, it’s very challenging. But I’m very excited about running the program. I’m very fortunate to have coached under somebody like Ray Bowen. He gave me a lot of freedom as an assistant. He’s fully prepared me for this day. I understand it’s not something that’s going to be easy. Success isn’t going to come overnight. Hopefully it will, but I just want to run a nice, clean program with kids that are playing hard and having fun while they’re doing it.”
