Basketball: BCA girls coach Griggs steps down in middle of year

Bethlehem Christian Academy’s girls basketball program is now on its third head coach in less than two seasons after first-year head coach Mike Griggs left the school last week.
Griggs, who was hired last summer to take over for Karen Parker, stepped down from the program following a 58-20 win by the Lady Knights over rival Loganville Christian on Jan. 8 that improved the team’s record to 8-7 at the time. Griggs said Tuesday he left to focus full-time on player development through the Loganville-based Georgia Basketball Academy, which he owns. He declined further comment.
BCA athletic director Lance Fendley described the situation as a “mutual parting of ways” between Griggs and the school but declined to go into further detail.
Assistant Julie Cavoretto has been named the interim head coach. She had been the middle school girls head coach the previous two seasons before joining Griggs on the varsity staff. Middle school boys head coach Jason Smith has been tapped as Cavoretto’s assistant.
“We have faith in (Cavoretto) and believe she’ll do a good job,” Fendley said. “Once the season’s over, we’ll conduct a full search with no limitations and open every door possible to find the very best coach, the right candidate to help the girls develop further and keep improving.”
Cavoretto is in her ninth year as a teacher at BCA and has prior coaching experience dating back to her days as an assistant at Dacula High School. She said her previous work with most of the team at the middle school level will help her in the transition.
“It was good to already have that established relationship,” Cavoretto said. “They’ve responded in a great way so far to the change and I think the team’s in great shape with our attitude.”
The Lady Knights dropped to 8-9 overall and 1-2 in GISA Region 4-AAA play over the weekend with a pair of losses, 37-27 at Augusta Prep on Friday and 34-22 at Westminster of Augusta on Saturday.
“I felt like we played really good defense and kept those teams from executing their offensive attack,” Cavoretto said. “We’ve been focusing on defending teams on the fast break and we’re starting to get it. Offensively, we’ve got to do a better job and add some things to our game plan so we can outscore our opponents.”
BCA hosted Killian Christian on Tuesday in a rematch of a game it won 61-20 on Nov. 27.
The Lady Knights will be back in region action Friday when they host John Milledge Academy at 6 p.m.