Sunday, December 6, 2009

out of the cold and into the warm gym

Well as much as I enjoy high school football, I do love it when we can finally get into the warm gyms. And though football is usually King in Gwinnett County, basketball is actually my first love on the high school level. Well there are a few good reasons. First and foremost it's nice and comfortable in the 68 degree gym. It's fast paced. It's an hour and a half. Well 3 hours if you count both games. We're closer to the fans. And there are many more reasons.
But one of the most important reasons is the coaches and the teams. We are very good when it comes to boys and girls basketball. When I say We I mean Gwinnett County. Let's look over the last 10 years in this sport. I know football had a lot of state champs and good teams but basketball was just as successful. Norcross boys, Collins Hill girls, Wesleyan Boys and Girls, GACS girls, Parkview girls and South boys and don't forget my alma mater in 2000-2001 the Berkmar Patriots. Look at some runnerups in South Gwinnett girls, Duluth and Parkview each made final four appearances as has Mill Creek. Meadowcreek girls had a run at the state title. Of course ask South it's hard to compete when you are playing a team with Maya Moore on it. Dani Kubic had a little part of not letting the Mustang girls win a title. If you take all our teams that made the finals and semifinals you would have a lot of teams that could compete with anybody in the country. Look at players from those teams. Maya Moore who has only lost 4 games in 6 years, is one of the top players if not the top player in the country right now. Look at Jodi Meeks who is playing for Milwaukee Bucks. How about Lou Williams who was a starter for the Philadelphia 76ers before he injured himself. How about Anne Marie Armstrong who won 3 state titles at Wesleyan and is now starting at Georgia. And these are girls and boys in the past. Look at this year. We have Erin Hall at Wesleyan continuing to help make the Lady Wolves a power. Angie Hembree has the Norcross Lady Blue Devils looking to join the mix with a great team. Mill Creek will be strong again and on the boys side the Blue Devils are strong and in AA let's not count out a tough GACS team coached by a great coach in Eddie Martin. How can you not like the up and down action and the comfort of watching it. That is why I am ready for some hoops action.