Milton Geddes ’16

Number 51, December 22, 2015

Milton Geddes chose to attend Coastal Georgia for three simple reasons.

One, the school offered him a basketball scholarship. Two, he could finish out his degree in education here. And three, it was just a short drive across state lines from his home in Jacksonville.

“Plus, the campus is small. I’m not a big-crowd type of person,” Geddes explains.

Geddes, a senior, is on scheduled to finish out his degree requirements this coming summer. By next fall, he hopes to be teaching back home in Jacksonville, preferably in a middle school as a math teacher or an elementary school as a fifth-grade math teacher. He could have to teach science in elementary school also, he says.

Eventually, Geddes wouldn’t mind using his basketball skills and knowledge to coach a school team. One of his career goals is also to start his own after-school program which would involve tutoring students and also teaching them general life lessons. He already has a name for his program. It’s called “Roc” which is short for Raising Our Communities.

“I want to help kids and hopefully see them succeed,” he said. “Hopefully, I can help point them in the right direction. There are a lot of distractions out there.”

This fall, Geddes began his student teaching at Altama Elementary in Brunswick. He was there in the morning to assist one of the school’s fifth-grade math teachers in the classroom. In January, Geddes will spend all day at the local school and will pretty much be in charge of the classroom while teaching the students general math skills.

He has already started to develop lesson plans and his early assignment will be to teach his students to add, subtract, multiply and divide using fractions.

When he walked through the doors earlier this school year at Altama, which is just a few miles from campus on the same road, it wasn’t the first time Geddes had been in the classroom environment. For two years, Geddes attended Pensacola (Fla.) State, where he played basketball and began working toward a degree in education.

He took a year off from school after his time there was finished, and while trying to find the best place for him to play ball and finish out his degree, Geddes worked as a substitute teacher back home in Jacksonville in the Duval County school system. He spent time in several elementary and middle schools and also was assigned to his alma mater, Andrew Jackson High.

“That taught me about classroom management,” he said. “You have to do that before you can actually begin teaching.”

As he student teaches this coming term, Geddes will finish out his collegiate playing career with the Mariners.

Last year, the 6-foot-7 forward was part of a Coastal Georgia team which won just four games, but he managed to set a new team single-season record with 57 blocks. He also set a single-game record with seven blocks in a contest against Mobile.

The Mariners currently have a losing record this season at the Christmas break, but the team has lost several close games in the first part of the season. Geddes who is primarily relied upon to play strong defense around the basket and rebound the ball hopes those close losses turn into wins when the team gets heavy into Southern States Athletic Conference after the holidays.

“We’re right there. We’re just a few mistakes away. Hopefully, we get over the hump,” he said.

Geddes is one of the leaders on the Coastal Georgia team. The 24-year-old is the team’s oldest player and therefore is often called “Gramps” or “Uncle Milt” by his teammates.

“I just laugh and have fun with it,” he says.

His coach, Jesse Watkins, said Geddes provides a great example for his teammates.

“He does what we ask and does it the right way,” Watkins said. “He handles his business. We’re proud of Milton and the way he represents his family and our program.”