From the ground up: Jamar Armstrong guides GMC from disrespect to dominance

Jamar Armstrong has been the head coach at GMC since 2018. Armstrong has compiled a 90-56 record with the Blazers in his six-year tenure thus far.

Jamar Armstrong couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

“Is that really what he’s wearing?” he asked himself quietly. “There’s no way.”

The year was 2017. As the first-year Greer Middle College basketball head coach prepared to lead his 2-A Blazers into an early-season battle against a prominent 4-A team, Armstrong walked out to half-court to meet with captains and opposing coaches before the game. 

The Blazers were fresh off a disastrous 0-18 season before Armstrong’s arrival. The year before that? 0-21. They’d never won more than seven games in a season.

GMC garnered no respect as a program. 

Armstrong knew that to be the case when he took the job. He was more than willing to take on the challenge. But Armstrong didn’t realize just how little many others thought of GMC until that mid-December game.

“One of their coaches came out to the captain’s meeting at half court before the game, and I kid you not, he was wearing athletic shorts and sandals,” recalled Armstrong, who’s rarely seen on the court in anything but sleek dress shirt and tie. “He didn’t take us seriously. It was like he was saying ‘There’s no way we’re losing to these guys.’”

Armstrong returned to his team’s huddle after the pre-game meeting. He was livid.

“I was fired up. I told my guys after that ‘They don’t take us seriously. What are you going to do about that?’”

The Blazers played angrily, leading by as many as 16 in a 65-58 win.

“That was one of my favorite early moments here,” said Armstrong. “He didn’t even bother dressing up for the game, so we took care of business.”

That win set the tone for what was, in comparison to years past, an incredible season for GMC. The Blazers won 10 games in Armstrong’s first year. They swept teams like Landrum and Pickens on the way to their first double-digit win season in program history.

For Armstrong, that season was just a patch of land on the foundation he hoped to lay at GMC. The best, he hoped and knew, was still yet to come.

WAITING FOR AN OPPORTUNITY

Not many people can say that DeAndre Hopkins was one of the first players they ever coached.

Armstrong is one of those select few.

He began his coaching career in 2007 as a volunteer assistant coach at Daniel High School. Armstrong took the position as part of an internship. He needed the credits to close out his degree at Southern Wesleyan University.

Hopkins was a sophomore playing basketball and football for Daniel at the time. Armstrong worked closely with the future first-round NFL Draft pick on the court.

“We used to stay after practice and work late all the time,” said Armstrong. “As a basketball player, I was pretty instrumental in helping him with skill development.”

Armstrong (middle row, third from left) coached basketball at Daniel High as a volunteer assistant during the 2007-08 season. There, he helped work with former Clemson player and future NFL star DeAndre Hopkins (top row, second from left).

Upon graduating from Southern Wesleyan, Armstrong took a position as an assistant at Greenville High School in 2011. He began learning and growing under the tutelage of Greenville head coach Mike Anderson.

“I could always see the potential there with [Armstrong],” said Anderson. “I was probably a little harder on him than some of my other assistants because I knew that eventually being a head coach was the path he wanted to take.”

From the beginning, Anderson says, he knew Armstrong had what it took to achieve his goals. He did all of the little things right.

“He was always willing to do whatever it took. He’d sweep the floors after the game, do the team’s laundry, whatever was needed of him,” said Anderson. “He was eager to learn and ask questions.”

“Coach Anderson taught me a lot of things,” said Armstrong. “He taught me structure and just how to run a program. Discipline and organization are two things he taught me extremely well.”

After working with Armstrong for six years and pushing him to be his best, Anderson made him the head coach of Greenville’s freshman team in 2017. 

Armstrong led the Red Raider freshmen to one of their only undefeated seasons in program history.

“That year will always be one of the biggest highlights of my career,” said Armstrong.

As top assistant under Anderson and now a proven winner as head coach of Greenville’s freshman squad, it was clear Armstrong was ready to take the next step. 

He just needed the right opportunity.

TRAIL BLAZERS

A Greer Middle College home game in 2024 looks a lot different than it used to.

After a decade of winning hardly anything, Armstrong jokes, it was hard to even convince the parents to come out to watch back before he got the job in 2018. Now, the stands are packed every game. 

“The support has been incredible. The fans get in here and pack the gym out every Tuesday and Friday night,” said Armstrong. “It’s hard to find a seat in this place sometimes.” 

Winning will do that for a program.

From a GMC team that won a combined zero games in the two seasons before Armstrong’s arrival, the Blazers have now won at least 14 games each of the last five years. They’re currently 13-4 this year with wins over several teams from higher classifications.

The 2023-2024 Greer Middle College basketball team is currently 13-4 and 2-0 in region play. Led by head coach Jamar Armstrong, the Blazers have already beaten several teams from higher classifications throughout their impressive run.

Led by two of the top seniors in the state — Jack Pfister and Musa Muriithi — Armstrong’s Blazers are competing with everyone.

Armstrong’s star players largely credit him for the shift in the program’s — and their personal — trajectories. 

“[Coach Armstrong] is probably the best coach I’ve ever had,” said Pfister. “Playing under him has really increased my skill level.”

“Coach Armstrong has allowed me to work through all of my mistakes,” said Muriithi. “He’s coached me tough but also made me a confident player... We’ve still got bigger goals as a team; he makes sure we’re never fully satisfied until we reach the ultimate goal.”

HOW FAR WE’VE COME

Earlier this season, Armstrong led his Blazers back to his old stomping grounds — Greenville High — as GMC faced off against J.L. Mann in the first round of the Poinsettia Classic tournament.

They defeated the Patriots, 65-59, to earn the program’s first-ever win over a 5-A opponent. A landmark win for GMC on Armstrong’s old home court.

As soon as Armstrong walked out of the locker room after the game, his former coaching colleague was the first to greet him. Mike Anderson congratulated Armstrong with a smile, a handshake, and a hug.

“Mike is still like a big brother to me,” said Armstrong. “He’s a great support base for me. I know he wants to see me do well.”

“Coach Armstrong and I, we still talk and text every single week,” said Anderson. “He’s still one of the guys I’m closest with. He’s done a great job, and watching them this year, I’ve been very impressed. I knew GMC was good, but after seeing them in person, I’m even more impressed with the job he’s done.”

Region play in full swing now this season for GMC. The main aspirations are still there: bringing home the program’s first-ever region and state titles. Armstrong’s focus lies ahead on those.

But sometimes, he admits, it’s hard not to look back and smile.

“I can’t lie, I do reflect every now and then and think ‘Wow, we really have won all these games,’ or, ‘Wow, we beat a 5-A team like J.L. Mann,’ or things like that,” said Armstrong.

“We’re a long way from what we used to be as a program. And sometimes at night, I just lay down in my bed and think about just how far we’ve come.”