SPRING GARDEN – Spring Garden senior point guard Cooper Austin knows a secret about his younger sister Ace.

On the flip side, Ace knows a thing or two about Cooper also.

But they’re not spilling any specific details. That’s because they’ve helped each other grow and become the players they are today.

Cooper compiled a 14.7-point, 4.5-assist, 3.9-rebound and two-steal average for the Panther boys (20-9) last basketball season, while Ace averaged 14.8 points, 6.8 assists, 5.8 boards and 3.3 steals for the Lady Panthers (31-2). Those numbers not only helped their respective teams post successful seasons once again, but they also helped them both earn Cherokee County basketball’s Most Valuable Player honors.

It’s the second straight year Ace has earned the girls’ honor, while Cooper is coming off the county’s Offensive MVP award in football.

In part, they have each other to thank for their respective honors.

“Ace, you can get under her skin if you know how to,” Cooper said. “That used to be my goal when I was younger, to make her cry and then just kind of back off. That was just the brother in me. I think in the long run it’s kind of helped her.”

“Lately we’ve been getting along pretty good for some reason,” Ace said with a smirk. “Me and (older brother) Riley know how to get under Cooper’s skin too, so it’s evened out. Him knowing how to make me mad has helped me. We’d be playing one-on-one and I’d just get so mad. On the way home from the gym I wouldn’t say a single word to him. I’d just be like so mad.

“We do play one-on-one a lot and I’m thankful for that. I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at right now without being able to play one-on-one with them.”

Cooper said Ace, now a freshman, has taught him a few tricks.

“She watches a lot of ball-handling moves and likes to create a shot that nobody really sees, but whenever she’s playing against me one-on-one, she’ll say ‘Hey, watch this move that I’m trying to learn.’ She’ll show me, and it kind of teaches me the same thing,” he said.

Both Cooper and Ace come by their athleticism honestly. Mother Dana Austin and her twin sister Jana McGinnis both starred at Spring Garden and in college at Jacksonville State University. Their older brother Riley, who won the Cherokee County boys basketball MVP in 2018, was also a standout point guard at Spring Garden.

And their father and head coach Ricky Austin was also a pretty good point guard himself at Spring Garden in the 1980s.

Ricky called his son and daughter earning the county’s basketball MVP honors in the same season “special.”

“Just thinking about both of them getting it makes me realize how successful our teams have been,” Ricky said. “When they were born they were in the gym. Both of them have been crawling around girls and boys practices, doing drills. They would be on the sideline in diapers or on the floor crawling around.”

Ricky recalls Cooper writing his own summer workout schedule when he was younger, because he watched him and his mom doing the same type of planning.

“Riley was the same way, and Cooper absorbed that. Now Ace has absorbed it,” Ricky said. “We’re very proud of them. They’ve really earned it and worked really hard.

“Being a point guard, you’ve got to have an IQ of the game. You’ve got to understand situations, and they both do a very good job of that. We sat at so many games while they were growing up. Riley, Cooper and Ace have all sit in my arms and watched videos of game film when I’d be giving them a bottle or something. I think they’ve absorbed a lot of that just from the IQ part of it, being at games and being around coaches that talk the game and them understanding.”

Of course it also helps your game when your father is a future hall of fame coach. When asked what it’s like playing for their dad, both Cooper and Ace said it’s tough.

“I was hardheaded my first three years,” Cooper said. “Me and daddy would get into arguments almost every game. (Grades) nine through 11, we had a lot of arguments in games throughout the years, but this past year, something clicked between us I guess. I don’t remember an argument the whole year.

“You see your dad standing on the sideline and you’ve heard stories of the player he was. You kind of try to live up to that standard. It’s a standard that you set for yourself. You don’t want to let him down, but at the same time, you’re hardheaded because you’re just a boy, but it’s fun. I wouldn’t trade the journey we’ve had together for anything. I wouldn’t have wanted to play for anybody else.”

Added Ace: “It is pretty hard because he expects a lot out of you. We don’t take shortcuts. If he sees you (taking shortcuts), you’re getting in a lot of trouble. There’s a few times I’ve wanted to say something to daddy, but I’ve heard how Cooper gets in trouble for that, so I just think about how bad Cooper and Riley have gotten into trouble. I’m like ‘I want to stay on his good side, so I’m not going to say nothing.’

“It’s pretty hard, but I’ve learned a lot from watching them play and when I was little going scouting with daddy and stuff. I’m thankful for being able to do all that.”

And just like their other family members, both Cooper and Ace are both humbled by the honors they receive.

“I’m blessed to have this accomplishment on my resume,” Cooper said. “I’m blessed that the coaches throughout the county recognize my game, blessed to have teammates and coaches who support me and the game that I play. When you have players like Andrew Bates and Chaz Pope who you saw get injured in football and really didn’t step on the field again, it kind of drives you. I feel like I owed them just because I saw how much effort and hard work they put into coming back.

“Out of my four years, this was probably the funnest season we’ve had. The group we had, the seniors we had, all the way down to the ninth graders, everybody just clicked so well.”

“It’s an honor to have back-to-back MVPs, but without my teammates it would be very hard to do this,” Ace said. “We had a good season. It’s not the way we wanted it to end. We had a few games where we were pretty sloppy, but the next day at practice it wasn’t under our skin or anything. We were right back where we were. We just forgot about it.

“All of our seniors really helped us this year, and we wouldn’t have been able to make it this far without them.”

Joining Cooper and Ace Austin from Spring Garden as all-county selections is Pope, Jacob Welsh, John Welsh, Neely Welsh, Kayley Kirk and Abbey Steward.

Pope averaged 6.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, 2.3 steals, 1.9 assists and a block per contest. Jacob Welsh had collected 11.8 points, 6.8 boards, 1.5 blocks and a steal. John Welsh managed 11 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.2 assists.

Neely Welsh averaged 17.4 points, 5.6 boards, two assists, 1.7 steals and a block. Kirk accumulated 9.8 points, 4.2 rebounds, 1.4 steals and 1.2 assists. Steward contributed 4.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, a steal and an assist.

The Sand Rock Lady Wildcats are represented by Lanie Henderson, Caley Garrett, Katelyn StClair and Haley Grace Lisenbee.

Henderson averaged 14.9 points, 8.1 rebounds, two assists, two steals and a block per contest. Garrett had 13.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 3.3 steals and 2.8 assists. Katelyn StClair tallied 15.3 points, 4.5 boards, 1.4 steals and 1.4 assists. Lisenbee had 6.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.4 steals and a block.

The Sand Rock Wildcats’ selections include Jacob StClair, Kaden Justice and Ben Dale.

Jacob StClair collected 24.1 points, 5.7 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.9 steals. Justice delivered 16.5 points, 7.9 boards, 1.8 assists and a block. Dale had five points, 3.8 rebounds, and was a 75 percent free-throw shooter.

Representing the Cherokee County Lady Warriors is Mary Hayes Johnson, Audrey Green and Emily Allen.

Johnson averaged 12.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 2.7 assists and 3.7 steals. Green gained 11.6 points, 3.4 assists, 3.9 steals and 2.3 rebounds. Allen accumulated 6.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and was a 47 percent shooter from the floor and an 82 percent free-throw shooter.

Warrior boys selected are Jack Amos, Jaden Wilson and Cade Hopper.

Amos averaged 19.3 points, four assists, 3.4 rebounds and two steals. Wilson collected nine points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, two assists and 1.4 steals. Hopper had seven points, four boards and was a 35 percent 3-point shooter.

Zaniya Kyle, Caley Bruce, Bucky Leek and Connor Flynt were chosen from Cedar Bluff.

Kyle collected 5.7 points and Bruce averaged 5.3 points per game. Leek tallied 13.2 points, 2.7 boards, three steals and 2.4 assists. Flynt tallied 13 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.4 steals and an assist.

Delaney Coker and Kyler Bradley represent Gaylesville. Coker collected 6.2 points, two assists and two steals per game. Bradley averaged 11.2 points, four steals and 3.5 rebounds.