The Banks County boys basketball team is not accustomed to losing, and that’s a good thing. The Leopards have been very fortunate since the arrival of head coach Mike Cleveland some seven years ago to reach unprecedented heights.

Cleveland’s first season (2011-12), the Leopards won 13 games, and followed that up with a rebuilding effort of 5 wins the next year. Then the program’s hard work began to pay off, with a 13-win ’13-14 season to a 24-win ’14-15 campaign. 2015-16 also produced 24 wins, while last year saw 23 more for the Leopards, who have become a state powerhouse program in Class 2A.

In each of the past three seasons, the boys have won a pair of regular season region titles and one tournament region championship, and gotten to the Sweet 16 three straight years. Cleveland and company, however, are hungry for more than just the second round.

Prior to a pair of losses to Elbert County in region play recently and the following night at North Hall, Banks County was ranked #2 in the state. That certainly took a hit with the rare back-to-back losses, but the Leopards remain a top-10 ranked team. With a chip on their shoulder, seniors Dylan Orr, Gabe Martin and Darius Bonds, as well as sophomore sensation Carl Cleveland, are looking to perhaps win out.

To date, the Leopards have gone 85-19 since the 2014-15 season, now dropping only four total region contests in that span. With a great starting lineup of players who can all take a game over, and a solid bench that Cleveland says is young and talented — yet still growing — one would think that this is the year they break the Sweet 16 barrier…but for Cleveland, at the moment the Leopards will “take it a game at a time.”