Only an elite list of teams makes it beyond Valentine’s Day in high school basketball. Tucker High School Coach James Hartry and his team have dribbled and scored their way past that date for the last two decades.
As head basketball coach, Hartry, 67, took Tucker High’s varsity boys team to 21 consecutive state playoffs, ending nine in the final four, five in the finals and winning one state title in 2007. Hartry coached his last Tucker High School game on Feb. 28 in a nail-biting playoff against Milton’s Cambridge High, with the Tucker Tigers falling short by just two points (58-56).
That playoff upset closed the chapter in one of the most epic Georgia tales of high school basketball coaching. Carter Wilson, his friend and former colleague, could not have imagined what his fellow Clark Atlanta University classmate would accomplish.
“Not only was he good at player development, he was good at connecting with people. He had the ability to make players feel like they were better than they even knew that they could be… You can only teach so much dribble-pass-shoot. It’s the mental part of the game that separates [him].”
His journey to coaching
Hartry, a Milledgeville native, learned the art of the game from his four older brothers. His sister and parents made sure he had the structure and discipline to succeed.
“All five of us played high school and college basketball. That was our ticket to getting out of Milledgeville,” Hartry said. “We didn’t know it at the time, but that was the ticket that offered my parents that worked hard with their third and fourth-grade education a way out.”
After graduating from Baldwin High School in 1976, the promising point guard got a full ride at Clark College (CAU). He graduated with one goal in mind: the NBA. He spent some time pursuing league basketball, but once he saw the “professional door was closing,” Hartry re-imagined his dream.
“I never even thought I would be a college graduate, so that was a blessing,” he said. “I said to myself, ‘You can’t chase basketball all your life.’”
Doors open
He decided to stop chasing for an opportunity to play the game, but his mentor and former Clark coach Robert Pritchett paved a path for Hartry to stay in the game. Pritchett hired him as a graduate assistant in 1982. Shortly after, Hartry went back home to Milledgeville to court his now-wife, Alva, and bring her back to Atlanta.
He dabbled in coaching girls’ basketball at the former Avondale High School, but he knew he eventually wanted the chance to coach boys. Fastbreak, a summer youth program he started with Wilson, gave him the chance to expose young people from elementary school to high school to the sport. One summer during camp, Wilson got a call that would change both of their lives. Wilson was invited to become the head coach at Tucker High School. He quickly enlisted Hartry as his assistant coach.
“I was finally getting the chance to do it. The door opened,” Hartry said. “Carter Wilson is a genius. We came to Tucker, and Tucker was all football…We started winning basketball games in my second year there.”
Hartry rises to the top
Wilson’s exit led to Hartry ascending to the head coach position in 2000. The wins kept coming, along with opportunities to coach in the Bahamas, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C. Some of his players, like Marshon Brooks, who was drafted by the Boston Celtics, took his tutelage well beyond Tucker.
In 2024, he served as assistant coach for the McDonald’s High School All-American basketball team. Cooper Flagg, Dallas Mavericks forward, was one of the budding stars on that roster.
The long days of practice and games were assisted by his staunch support system, especially his wife Alva, who he says was like an assistant coach over the years. His daughters, now adults in the fields of law and health care, both gained a love for basketball as they witnessed their dad’s commitment to it.
“I couldn’t have done any of this without them,” Hartry said. “My wife has printed out prayers for me, been there for me. My whole family doesn’t miss a game. You can’t make it 26 years without a support system.”
Since announcing his retirement, former players, dignitaries, and Tucker residents have rallied around Hartry. He was recently honored at his church, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, by U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, who said he would “always be indebted to Coach Hartry” for his commitment to involving his players to be civically engaged off the court.
Myss Jelks, DeKalb athletics executive director, described Hartry as a “powerful force” that helped build a tradition of excellence and fostered a “culture of discipline, pride, and integrity” for student-athletes at Tucker High.
Hartry has been honored by the City of Tucker for his unmatched record after his last home game. Wilson said he hopes to see his friend immortalized at Tucker High School in the future.
“Tucker is the cradle of great coaches,” Wilson said. “You’ve got A.Z. Johnson, Jack Waters, David Boyd, but he rises to the top because he was able to do it for an extended period of time.”
Hartry said he will miss the game, but the closest he’ll get to the sport now is watching the Boston Celtics in-person and getting Atlanta Hawks season tickets with his wife. He won’t soon forget the gifts basketball brought him.
“It helps you grow. You see these other guys playing, and you know you can’t be a misfit,” Hartry said. “I’ve seen things I never would’ve seen, met people I never would’ve met. This is what basketball gave me.”