It’s been a week of basketball which doesn’t come around
very often in these parts. In fact, I believe the phrase “in decades” could be
used.
Since last we met a Wednesday ago, Dyersburg’s girls and boy
have repeated as District 13-3A Champions and the Lady Trojans are about to
start preparing for their last hurdle to get to the state tournament for a
third time – Saturday’s sectional round game against Millington.
Good Old JP has been covering this deep into the postseason
for over 20 years now and the excitement never really goes away once a team
gets out of the district tournament. For some reason, it’s not that tense
during the opening round of the region during most seasons. On the girls side,
that held true this past Friday night as even a fourth-seed Dyer County beating
a district champ in Haywood was not deemed to be a major upset.
On Saturday night, both boys teams advanced out of the
region quarterfinals and into the semifinals. It’s the first time since the
Choctaws and Trojans returned to the same district that they both won in the
quarterfinals of a region tournament in the same year. Both wins saw them ahead
big then fight for the win.
Dyer County ran into a super-tough Fayette Ware team on
Tuesday night, ending the Choctaws season. But, that was probably one of the
best 20-loss teams I have ever covered and they showed that during the
postseason, knocking off Obion County Central and Bolivar on the way to the
region semifinals. They were a six-win team before winning four of their last
six. Good finish to a team that loses only one senior, albeit a very talented
one.
The Trojans became the first boys team from Dyersburg to
advance to the region tournament championship game since 2004 with a
come-from-behind win over Haywood on Tuesday night. After that, a date with
either Munford or Kirby awaits the Trojans, who will look to send themselves
and their head coach Blaine Mahaffey to the state tournament. For the DHS
program, it will be the first time since 1987 if they can win somewhere on
Monday night. For Mahaffey, it will be his first as a head coach.
While the postseason continues, news from the TSSAA and the
attempt to get a one-time transfer rule pushed through.
Regardless of the news and who is getting involved, this is
an issue where you see my stubborness come to the forefront.
My position has and will always be that the only effective
and, pretty much, fair policy would be this – you change schools – you sit a
calendar year. A similar standard was good enough for people of my generation,
it’s good enough for this generation and others to come. And, it solves a lot
of problems that make high school sports look like it’s adopted free agency in
some areas of the state. But, no one asked Good Old JP.
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