A Word From The Outlaw 009

March 19, 2025

Boy, has it been a week for local sports or what?

There are plenty of topics I could take on right now but there is one in which past experience tells me I might not always get a chance to discuss when it pertains to our local high school athletes.

But, this week, I have decided to step away from my regular way of doing things and just let some things go.

On Tuesday, Dyersburg’s Joya Crawford travelled back to Murfreesboro for the Miss Basketball Awards ceremony. Unfortunately, the Lady Trojan standout did not come away with the biggest honor.

Before we go any further, a lot of us over here in West Tennessee feel like, when it comes to awards like this, players from this side of the Tennessee River do tend to get overlooked. One reason I feel this way isn’t because of anything being intentionally done. From my experience, there is a growing lack of journalists on this side of the river to carry the torch for players like Crawford.

This all being said, she was the third player in my over 20 years of being a sports editor and, now, a small business owner who plies his trade in the sports world. Kendall Cavin from Westview in 2003 and Kayla Hudson in 2006 and 2007 were the two previous nominees I had the honor of watching during the season in which they were up for the award. Of those three instances, twice the player I covered walked away with the honor.

In my personal opinion, this year should have been Crawford’s year. Honestly, she should have been a finalist twice before that. Had she played on the eastern side of the river, she probably would have gotten at least one more finalist honor. That’s just the way things are.

You can look at stats all day long on these player. Crawford’s senior season was one of the best – if not the best – that I have ever seen. According to Hudl, she averaged 17.7 points per game through 34 games as well as 4.5 rebounds per game. She shot 45.3 percent from the field while 31.4 from beyond the three-point line. And, this was in a season which saw her pass the 2000-point plateau and finish with around 2,300 points for her career.

As many will tell you, numbers can be made to say anything. And, to a point, that is true. However, this is where the eye test comes in.

Good Old JP here will admit to having a bit of bias. I covered the majority of Crawford’s games from sixth grade through last Friday in Murfreesboro. There’s a good chance I took a picture of her first high school points and I know I got her last.

So, maybe I am just disappointed the local player didn’t get an award and a girl from a team which Dyersburg beat twice by double digits did. I can cop to that. That’s also my right as a journalist and a person. But, this can all go into the “it is what it is” file.

Now the question becomes how will local fans remember the Joya Crawford era of Lady Trojan basketball.

Crawford arrived at DHS the same year as Tim Strayhorn arrived to coach the Lady Trojans and help rebuild a program which had only six players on the roster.

That first year was tough but anyone who’d been paying attention knew one thing – help was coming.

The stories have been written and we all know what has come since. Three straight state tournament appearances. The school’s first-ever TSSAA Class 3A State Championship in Girls Basketball. And, I can’t help but feel we were a play away from making it two in a row.

When it all comes down to it, if you’re a Lady Trojan fan and Crawford isn’t on your Mount Rushmore of Dyersburg girls’ basketball greats, I’d love to know who is in her place. She belongs along those greats like Sherelle Warren, Connie Swift and others.

Crawford was a key piece in the rebuild of the Lady Trojan program. Now, it will be interesting to see the Lady Trojans next season and what happens when she is not on the floor. Personally, I am not worried for the future. I think players like Chelby Jordan and Aerie Quinn are ready to step up even more than they did this past season.

When it comes to how to wrap this up, I think there’s only one way. The final shot Crawford took as a Lady Trojan – a perfect three-pointer at the end of a state tournament game. Thank you, Joya. Good luck in Cincinnati.