1967 Newton County Team
From 7-26-14
To have a good basketball team, it is vital to have good Senior leadership. That leadership can come from an individual, but it helps to have several mature leaders so that they can help recognize any potential problems within the team. We have always felt that the seniors have the most at risk, as this is the last year that they will ever play in high school.
Our 1967 team had the fewest number of seniors on any of our eight previous teams. Eddie Hinton was the lone senior available for fall practice, as Gary Wilkerson wouldn't be available to us until after football season. We had some other outstanding players returning as juniors, as Terry Schell, Richard Allen, & Phil Shaw, & sophomore Thad Blankenship, had already shown outstanding promise. In our 6th game of the season, we lost to Griffin High, and then had a 1-point loss at Avondale High right after the Christmas holidays. (Both of these losses were avenged when those teams came to "Death Valley"!) Our only other loss in the regular season occurred at state-ranked Druid Hills High. The Rams entered sub-region play top-seeded, with an overall record of 25-3. In the sub-region Newton easily defeated Gainesville H.S. & South Hall H.S. by large margins. In the Region semi-finals @ Hart Co., the Rams had a tough game with Franklin Co., but prevailed 47-42, to advance to the championship game! Playing before an overflow (& boisterous) crowd, the Rams seemed on the way to their 8th straight win over Hart Co., as they headed to the dressing room at halftime with a 9-pt. lead. The 2nd half was was an entirely different game, as everything went Hart Co.'s way. The 50-46 loss to the "Bulldogs" ended Newton's string of 3 straight Region Championships! The Rams opened the state tournament with powerful Cairo, who was favored to win the state championship for the 3rd straight year. Knowing Cairo's extremely tough "match-up zone" was very difficult to get a good percentage shot, it required the Rams to be very patient on offense in order to get an open shot. We knew that for us to have any chance to win, it had to be a low-scoring game. (We got another "break", when the Lt. Governor of Georgia, sat next to the "Syrupmakers" coach, Tommy Taylor, during the game.) Underclassmen Terry Schell & Thad Blankenship led the way in scoring, with 17 & 11 pts, respectively. Gary Wilkerson's 17 rebounds were vital in the 45-42 upset against Cairo. Also, this was an early-afternoon game (where most upsets occur due to the unusual time & routines for the teams involved). The Rams' 45-41 loss to Russell High in the quarter-finals ended their season with a 25-5 record. Wilkerson's 16 ppg & 14 rebounds per game, helped earn him All-state status for the 2nd year in a row. Schell , who was named All-Region (for the 2nd time) & Allen, each averaged 13 ppg. With Blankenship's 9 points & 8.4 rebounds per game average, the next season was already looking promising with those three returning. Seniors Wilkerson & Hinton finished their career with a 4-yr. record of 131-11, 12 overall championships including 3 Region titles, 4 sub-region titles, one State Championship & one State Runnerup! They also helped extend the home court winning streak to 123 consecutive wins. The Rams' 9-year record is now 261 wins & 27 losses, which makes an average yearly record of 29 wins & 3 losses!
