Jefferson basketball coach Bolling DuBose had a feeling that Satchel Turpin would have a breakout game sometime this season, he just didn’t realize it would happen so early in the year.

After losing Austin Thompson to graduation after last season, the Dragons were searching for someone to fill his role as someone the team relies on to produce. DuBose knew that Turpin had talent, it was simply a matter of getting Turpin to realize it as well.

“In preseason practice I thought he looked tremendous,” DuBose said. “The first two games of the season he put a lot of pressure on himself, so he kind of struggled the first three or four games, but in practice we kept seeing what he was capable of doing.”

Last week, Turpin showed everyone what he was capable of doing by scoring 26 points in a 92-89 overtime win against Johnson last Tuesday to hand the Knights their first loss of the season. He then scored 15 more in a 68-36 blowout win against Social Circle on Friday.

For his efforts, Turpin is The Times Boys Athlete of the Week.

“The Johnson game was probably the best overall game I’ve ever seen him play,” DuBose said. “He went out and started the game really strong. He did a great job attacking the basket. I hope that shows him he can do that against everybody.”

The Dragons were down by as many as 19 points against Johnson, but Turpin slowly evolved into a more vocal leader on the court and began doing what he knew was necessary to help the team win.

“When the shots started falling, I started having more confidence,” Turpin said.

That confidence turned into 20 second-half points and a 26-foot jump shot as time expired to lead Jefferson to a win.

“I’ve never really done anything like that before,” Turpin said. “I’ve been starting to work on my jump shots the past couple of years, and they’re starting to fall some.”

Before the win against Johnson, the Dragons were struggling to score, but the team had a week off before playing the Knights, and DuBose had a method to help the team.

“We were running every time we made a mistake in practice,” DuBose said. “The kids’ responses to that were positive and the practices got better.”

Not only did those practices help the team eliminate mistakes, it helped Turpin emerge as more of a leader on the team.

“In those week practices, we first started seeing him being vocal,” DuBose said. “We’ve never heard him hardly say a word before. He was not the only one, but it was very out of character for him. I think he just got tired of us making mistakes.”

“We ran a lot, and I saw people starting to get down and frustrated so I tried to keep them up and motivate people,” Turpin said.

“That helped a big deal. It just boosted my confidence level that I can be more than I thought I would.”

Turpin plays for a team that has a tradition of winning, but DuBose knows that “it’s one thing to expect to win and another to have the confidence to do it.”

After two big wins, however, he believes his team has its confidence back and that Turpin had the stellar game he knew was coming.

“I’m happy that he did it early in the season,” DuBose said. “He shoots well outside, he sinks threes, he attacks the basket, and he’s a good rebounder.”

As for the Johnson game, “we wouldn’t have done it without him,” DuBose said.