Homecoming for the Hiwassee College men's basketball team was last week, when the Tigers lost 66-41 to Truett-McConnell.
Jeulian High will get a second one Friday.
The former Brainerd High School standout is a member of the Tigers team that will play the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the Mocs' season opener. The 5:30 game will be the first time High, a sophomore who graduated from Barinerd in 2012, has played at McKenzie Arena, and it will be against a team hungry to get its season started.
The Tigers, who compete in the National Christian College Athletic Association, have had a rough start to the year. They are 0-5 with a game tonight against Oakwood University. Coach Will Raby is in his first year, and only three players who played in last season's 86-68 loss at UTC remain on the roster.
"In the beginning we started slow, but we've picked up and have been playing well," High said. "We're all trying to learn the coach's philosophy, how he coaches and trying to develop some chemistry, but our last game was the best game we played all year."
The Tigers lost 78-69 to Reinhardt on Tuesday.
"We've struggled out of the gate," Raby said. "We have a lot of new players and new coaches, and we're in a rebuilding mode with a young team. We have to go into Friday's game ready to compete. We can't go in saying this is a Division I team and play scared.
"That being said, we are excited that we get the chance to play these games and hope to keep playing UTC every year."
Raby added that High has been "a hard worker and an easy player to coach. He never misses practice and gives it his all every day."
Those assessments were backed up by Hall of Fame high school coach Robert High, Jeulian's great-uncle who won 1,001 games and three state championships during his tenure at Brainerd.
"Jeulian probably developed more than any player I've ever had," Coach High said. "His sophomore season he was a so-so player, but after the season when we had workouts in the spring and summer, he didn't miss a single day. He even canceled doctor's appointments, and it showed as he improved a lot from that point forward."
Jeulian is excited about his return to his home city.
"It's going to be fun -- very interesting," he said. "It's going to be my first time in front of the home crowd. I'm not one of those players to put a lot of extra emotions in it; I just try to focus everything else out and do what I've got to do to help the team win."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.