While misty rain gave my windshield wipers a light workout, I meandered through the sparsely-populated back roads towards the Cherokee County Basketball Tournament in Centre. As my truck approached the GSCC Arena, the overflowing crowd of cars served as a reminder of the contrast between a solitary ride through the country and the bustle of a crowded gym. Amongst the complications of parking, standing in line in the bathroom, and loud eruptions of noise, I viewed the county’s best teams, relived old memories and rediscovered the simplicity of the word “play.”

Scanning the crowd at the county tournament, one sees a mosaic of colors and school mixtures rarely spied at Cherokee County sporting events. Unlike most contests in which there is a distinct home and visitor’s side, the GSCC arena, as a neutral site, fills up with fans of each respective school randomly. In any given section of seating, all school colors of those playing that night could be identified--Spring Garden’s maroon and yellow, Cedar Bluff’s bright red, Centre’s black and gold, as well as Sand Rock’s maroon and white. Even a few Gaylesville purple jackets and caps could be spotted around the arena, even though the Trojans did not play that night.

Besides sporting school colors, many county tournament fans took on other roles--proud parents, snapping incessant photos; aging, elder statesmen of the game, standing guard over the sport they once played or coached; cheerleaders down on the floor pulling up their hair, practicing flips; stone-faced coaches with their clipboards in tow; teenagers, IPod earplugs hanging down the side of their face, texting friends; and antsy kids, trekking around the circular walkway past the stands, trying their best to play and not be forced to sit and watch others play.

Fans often endear themselves to the underdog. Perhaps one of the most enduring aspects of the Cherokee County Basketball Tournament lies within the nature of the county’s school population, the smaller schools have an indelible opportunity to claim memories by toppling the highly-populated ones. Some argue that comparing the athletic teams of the smaller schools (Gaylesville, Spring Garden, and Cedar Bluff) with those of the larger ones (Sand Rock and Cherokee County High) is comparing apples and oranges. Yet, when the more miniscule school prevails, the pride with which the participants view the upset endures a through the ages. With girls and boys championship games for various age levels continuing throughout the afternoon and well after dark, there was plenty of time for adults to reminisce about their participation in county tournament conquests of years past.  An elected public official recalled memories of his 1985 Cedar Bluff team that beat CCHS in the tourney. One person recalled to me how he had won the county tournament MVP trophy in 1965, though his team failed to win the championship. A Cedar Bluff assistant coach shared how he scored the winning basket in the 2000 tournament as his Tiger team ousted Cherokee County the day before an ice storm. A local football coach recalled to me a Spring Garden team that once won the county tournament, despite having only won one game all year going into the event. A current coach and I tried to recall the better players of another rival county team that won the tourney in the 1980’s. All around me I saw former athletes whose attendance at the event almost certainly aroused memories of when they performed on this stage.           

The 2A Sand Rock girls took the night’s first varsity title, 43-34 over 1A 8th-ranked Spring Garden, the only small county school that routinely contends for county titles. After vaulting to an 8-0 lead, the Wildcats (12-9) never looked back. Sand Rock’s man-to-man defense limited Spring Garden (11-8) to only one 3-pointer, and muffled junior standout Tara Mullinax to only three baskets from the field, and the rest of the Panthers to only four. On offense, Sand Rock tallied six threes of their own, and was led in scoring by junior Karlie Anderson with 14, senior Gena Farmer with 11, and junior Amber Henderson with 10. Despite late time-outs by the Spring Garden coaches and a full-court press, Spring Garden never could cut the deficit below 7 points in the 4th quarter. In the end, Sand Rock players gleefully rushed the center of the court to claim and hoist the tournament trophy, adorned with a golden basketball on top of a mahogany mantle. The joy of play and the reward of year-long discipline obvious on their faces as they posed for photos and gave each other hugs.

In boys action, Cherokee County High (9-3) claimed championship honors over Cedar Bluff 62-55. Though their average daily enrollment is only 116, compared to the 272 of CCHS, the Tigers had high hopes entering the contest, sporting a 15-1 record and ranked number one in the state in 1A. Indeed, Cedar Bluff held a nine-point lead in the second quarter, but CCHS’s zone defense held the Tigers to only five points in the third. The Warriors finally took the lead 37-36 with 2:35 remaining in the third and expanded it to six by the end of the quarter. With two quick three-pointers by senior standout Coty Blanchard to start the fourth, Cedar Bluff found themselves down by 12, much to the elation of the animated CCHS student section. Powered by juniors Marcus Reese and Tyric Scales’ 4th quarter field goals and freshman, DeAngelo Hardy’s four free throws, the Tigers crept to within three points with 3:59 remaining in the game. Yet, a steal and bucket by senior Keon Rucker, another 3-pointer by Blanchard, and a transition bucket by senior Colin Perry put the game out of reach. Cedar Bluff (15-2) would have to wait another year to try to claim its first county championship since 1964. In their photograph after the game, each CCHS player coolly held up a “number 1” with their finger. While some tried to keep a straight face, the broad smiles of others indicated their true elation.

After the game, the players dressed and the crowds began to part. For the first time in many hours, the court itself ceased to be the center of adult attention. That’s about the time that some elementary school kids found a basketball and spilled onto the court. While the grown-ups took their final pictures and gathered their things, the children broke into a game of basketball. As with such an age, the game was more a matter of a frantic chase for the ball. A more athletic child would grab the ball, dodging the other kids who chased after him, and would desperately heave the ball in the vicinity of the basket when he finally escaped the crowd. Some of the girls held hands and spun in a circle on the court, ignoring the boys’ pursuit of the brown sphere. On the other end of the court, older kids, middle school age or perhaps even on the “B” teams found another ball and started a more organized pick-up game there. The joy of play had broken out on both sides of the court. Eventually, parents began calling for their children to leave, and the play had to cease.

As I left the building, a couple of my life-long friends and I relived old times, recalling funny and embarrassing incidents from when we were just kids. We promised that we’d get together sometime, maybe even play golf like we used to do nearly twenty years ago.

As I was about to walk out the door, I heard the “thump” of a basketball again bouncing on the gym floor. A few of the remaining kids in the building had secured another ball and were giving another impromptu game of basketball a try. From kids sneaking down to the court at a forbidden time to kids in their forties, reliving and making plans to play again, the precious joy of play is alive and well.