My First Team p4
From 6-29-14
Continued from previous posts: Our team was geared for a wild game & our fans were loving it! We were on an 18-game winning streak as we headed to Gainesville. It was a long night for the Rams as they came out on the short end of a 67-58 loss. Our very next game we headed back toward Gainesville to face South Hall. It was the strangest game of my nearly 1800 varsity basketball games as a coach! The only call the "refs" could make was a double foul. Right before halftime tempers flared and Larry Harper took a swing, which missed, & the scrap started. The clock continued to run and the horn finally sounded. The players stopped, as if on cue, and we went to our dressing room. Now the problem was there was only one men's restroom for the fans, & it was in our dressing room.
I stationed 3 of our biggest players to hold the door, as I was "pretty hot!" as I needed to adjust to the"football" game that was being played on the court. A team could send a sub onto the floor as long as you didn't exceed 5 players (the refs could count). We won the game on a beautiful block by Perry Haymore & a fine run by Larry Parnell for a layup. Prior to our last game of the season, Billy Dean slammed the car door on his thumb, and the bleeding limited his play, but we won over Chamblee 55-54 and finished the regular season with a 21-1 record. We won our opening game of the sub-region tournament over Avondale 88-72. On Friday the 13th,we next faced the bright- colored orange Bulldogs of Hart Co., and we chased their great-
dribbling guard all night as he continually fed his open teammates in a 62-58 Hart win. We were still alive as we entered the region tournament. After defeating East Hall & Headland, here were the "Elephants" again! On a turnover or a basket Gainesville wouldn't let us have the ball until their players got back on defense, & it slowed our Rams' offense down. A travel call on a wide-open layup was critical as the loss gave the Rams a final 24-3 record. The next day I took the seniors to Macon for the Class B&C state tournament. On the way we stopped at the S&W Cafeteria. A man was playing soft music at the piano & I noticed that all of us had tears falling into our plates.
