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SPORTS
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Photo Submitted
Owen County won the boys JV tournament, beating Gallatin County
34-23 in the championship. The Rebels finished the season 13-6.
The team members are, back row, left to right, Jared Perkins,
Zack Miller, Daniel Buchanan, Nathan Gambrell, Clint Hamilton,
Chad Perkins and Kevin Stafford. From row, left to right, Michael
Payton, Jordan Downey and Collin Gamble.
Basketball
Lady
Rebels get defensive
Balanced
attacks lead Laday Rebels
JV
loses finale
Stars
aren’t always the
best to watch
On
the Sidelines
Tim
Mandell
Whenever people find out I write
about sports — even when I stress that all my jobs have
been at community newspapers — their first question is usually
something about what it’s like to cover professional or
collegiate sports.
When I say that the beat is primarily high school, they want to
know if I’ve seen O.J. Mayo (most people’s pick as
the best high school basketball player in the country) or if I
ever got to see somebody the caliber of LeBron James or whatever
other superstar grew up anywhere else nearby.
That’s always where the conversation is headed — what
stars have I seen, or what future stars can I tell them about?
And then they tell me what stars they’ve seen.
All anyone cares about are the superstars.
Those stars are few and far between, and what’s left, is
almost everybody else.
The team players.
The scrappy players.
The role players.
The average to good to pretty good to really good players.
The players who show up to practice every day, who work hard,
who give it their all, and then, when they graduate, their playing
career is usually over or regulated to pick-up games and recreational
leagues.
Sometimes their playing career extends another four years into
college anonymity, then they join the real world and get a job
right along side the rest of us.
Only a few play on the big stage in college and even fewer go
on to play sports professionally.
What you have at the high school level, is sports, in its pure
form.
You have coaches, who are teachers first.
Their playing experience often is limited to high school and they’ve
learned to coach through trial and error.
You have players who might be undersized, inexperienced, are forced
to play out of position and are playing a sport that might be
their second, or even third, best sport.
This isn’t like in the movies, where all coaches are strategic
geniuses who live and breathe the sport to the point that all
that matters is the next practice, the next game, the next championship.
And the players aren’t these All-American massive machines
full of muscles and speed that are all going to play at Division
I schools or go straight to the pros.
This is the real life.
The teams at Owen County High School, just like the teams at most
every other school in the state, or even the country, are made
up of your regular, average, run-of-the-mill kids.
Your team players.
Your scrappy players.
Your role players.
Your average to good to pretty good to really good players.
You might see some exceptional play now and then, but you’re
more likely to see quite a few mistakes, from both the players
and coaches.
But that’s what makes it more interesting to watch.
What’s happening in the playing arenas in Owen County is
the same thing that’s happening in the playing arenas at
most every other high school in this country.
Sports, being played and coached by people who are doing it for
only one reason — for the love of the game.
Sports
Briefs
Toole
named
to All Region Team
Owen County senior Justin Toole was named to the Boys All Eighth
Region Basketball Team.
The team, which was voted on by the region coaches, selected Shelby
County’s A.J. Slaughter as the Player of the Year and Gallatin
County’s Jon Jones as the Coach of the Year.
Here are the results of the voting.
A.J. Slaughter, Shelby County, 167; Mike Hester, Simon Kenton,
110; Patrick Steele, Williamstown, 91; Kevin Allen North, Oldham,
86; Boston Howe, Grant County, 81; Alex Pehlke, Oldham County,
78; Israel Chambers, Shelby County, 50; Bailey Tabor, Grant County,
48; Brent McMahan, Carroll County, 47; Dustin Aldridge, Anderson
County, 42; Justin Toole, Owen County, 41; Brett Miller, Carroll
County, 37; Justin Davis, Gallatin County, 36; Sean Stiles, South
Oldham, 35; Jamar White, Shelby County, 31.
Rebels win final two regular season games
The Owen County boys basketball team closed out the regular season
with a pair of wins, earning a road win on Feb. 22, at South Oldham,
63-54, then the Rebels returned home for the season finale Friday,
beating Grant County 79-75. Against South Oldham, Justin Toole
led the Rebels with 26 points. Aaron Sutherland added 11 points,
Jared Perkins had 10 points and Glenn Smith scored eight points.
Toole also led the Rebels against Grant County, netting 20 points.
Smith had 18 points and Sutherland added 17 points for Owen County.
The Rebels (13-14) opened the district tournament Tuesday night
against Gallatin County at Gallatin County High School. The district
championship is at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Gallatin County High School.
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