“Good Year For Boy’s Basketball”

Jackson County has long been known for outstanding high school basketball programs. The 2009-10 season has come to a close and it’s been another fine year, especially on the boy’s side. Now some naysayers might point out that we have no boy’s squad going to Lakeland to compete for a state championship, so maybe it’s been an off year.

If they said that they would be flat wrong. All five of the county’s boy’s basketball season had outstanding seasons. Two of the teams, Marianna and Malone won 20 or more games. That has always been a bench mark for an outstanding season. Graceville was not far behind as they won 19 games. Sneads won 17 and Cottondale won 16. That’s 97 wins for five clubs and I suspect there are not a lot of years when all five clubs won 16 games or more. In all, the combined for the five teams is 97 wins and 40 losses.

Those naysayers might saw that we only had two district championships and only three of the five teams made the playoffs. Those naysayers might point out that there have been some years where the county had 3 or four district championships and all five teams made the playoffs. Well that just was not likely to happen this year and probably won’t happen next year.

Every two years the FHSAA remakes the classifications and districts. With the most recent changes three of the county’s five teams ended up in the same district (Cottondale, Sneads and Graceville). That automatically means that at least one won’t make the playoffs. Throw in the fact that they were in an 8 team district and that makes the case tough for the remaining two teams. Only Graceville survived district tournament and they did so as the district champ.

Malone got a new district as well and their new district included FAMU. The Tigers beat the Baby Rattlers twice during the regular season but fell in overtime in the district title bout. That put them on the road against a good Paxton squad that eliminated them from the playoffs.

Marianna also got a new district but they did not let it faze them. Their district included six teams and the Bulldogs went unbeaten in the district during the regular season. They then swept through the district tournament to claim a district championship. But with the reclassifications East Gadsden and Rickards both dropped from 4A to 3A. Both are much larger schools and both stood between Marianna and a third straight trip to Lakeland. While the Bulldogs dominated East Gadsden (see story on page three of sports) Rickards proved to be another matter and the Bulldogs season came to a close on Tuesday night.

So to any potential naysayers about this year’s basketball class, go bark up some other tree. Simply Put it was another outstanding year for hoops in Jackson County.



From the front porch: Coach said it’s not the falling down that matters. It’s the getting up that counts.