A hard way to end a season

Our Dawgs put the lid on their season in Bowling Green last Tuesday, and while the outcome wasn’t a surprise to many, the fashion in which the boys in blue went down might have turned some heads. I guarantee Barren County’s heads were turned.

Just a week after the Bulldogs’ loss to the Trojans 64-48 to close out regular season play, they took Barren County to the wire in the opening round of regional action on the Diddle Arena floor in Bowling Green.

The phrase “to the wire” was just exactly that. With 36 seconds on the fourth-quarter game clock, Clinton County trailed by just two points and with three seconds to be played, Eli Brown missed an opportunity with a jumper that would have likely sent the game into OT.

Barren dropped in two final free throws for the four point win, but when it was all said and done, our Dawgs left the Arena with tears flowing – but they held their heads high.

As Coach Todd Messer and three of those boys in blue sat at the table and addressed the media in the post-game press conference, they all displayed pride in the way they had left everything they had on the floor and came up just a single field goal short of advancing to semi-final action this past Monday night.

During that press conference, Coach Messer noted that many people think he is stubborn because he “expects to win every game and that will never change” then he went on to explain that he, his assistant coaches and those 13 kids in the dressing room had been brought to their knees by the game result just a few minutes earlier.

Still, as I stood in the media room and watched Messer and those three Bulldogs face the media, I couldn’t help but feel a swell of pride that I was associated with that group and that blue and white Clinton County shirt I was proudly wearing.

Yes, our Dawgs came up just a little short – again – in regional tournament action. But if that stat sheet had included a column for “grit, determination and heart”, they were all clear winners.

They wore the blue and white proudly and with style – know that I – and your entire community is proud of you.

Once a Bulldog – always a Bulldog!

Congrats to Eli

Word came Tuesday morning that congrats are certainly in order to a senior member of the Bulldog basketball team.

Eli Brown, who has overcome not one serious injury, but two in back to back years, and fought his way back to active playing status, has been named as the winner of the 4th Region Officials Scholarship given annually to a 4th Region basketball player.

Congrats are certainly in order to this fine young man.

Goodbye to a good friend

The news Friday came hard, and was met with initial disbelief.

For whatever reason that we may never know, my good, young and longtime friend, Darin , had decided he could no longer be of this life.

Sometimes, friendships are made and developed and grown and treasured in unexplainable ways. That was the case with the friendship myself and my family had developed with a young high school student, Darin Palacky. As that young man grew into an adult, our friendship grew as well.

Having spent time working closely with the athletic teams at Clinton County High School, as I have for the past 38 years, I’ve developed friendships with players, coaches, managers, referees and fans on both sides of the floor, as well as those who sit at the official table alongside me.

The friendships last forever, but the longer the association, the deeper the relationship is. That was the case with Darin.

As a high school student, he was on the sidelines, often working either as a manager, the official timer, the official scorer, or filling in with Public Address work if I was unable to get to a game. The latter usually happened during a Christmas tournament event when I had to work at this job during early sessions.

The remarkable thing about Darin and his work at the Official Table was, not only could he do all of those jobs – he could do them all at the same time if necessary.

He hung out with us before games, after games, on the road, at the All “A” Classic in the media room and at the state tournament – boys and girls.

Darin was long a part of this CCHS athletic program, and he became friends with the administration on down to the coaches, players and those volunteer staffers like myself.

To the basketball program, he was a manager for many years, then a scorer and timer. To hundreds of Lady Bat Dawg softball players, he was a coach – spending years on their field as an assistant in one form or another.

Spending as much time as I did sitting next to Darin at the table, working with him in the gym, talking to him at the softball games, he became a close, close young friend, both to myself and to my entire family.

There were a lot of antics on the sidelines between myself and Darin and others at the table that would make boring events bearable.

Little things like nightly bets as to who could guess the closest time that former Coach Ronnie Guffey would take his watch off, or coordinating as to the night we would both wear our handmade Bulldog neckties. During one Christmas tournament, when Janie found a Santa hat for sale for me to wear, she came home with two – one for Darin as well. When I thought he was spending too much time texting on his phone rather than paying attention to the game, I would put it in my pocket for awhile – and he would just shake his head and grin.

I wasn’t exclusive in my friendship with Darin – every coach, every manager, every player that ever worked or played these games since the late 1990s, was friends with this young man.

I’ll miss that distinct swagger he had as he made his way across the floor to greet me, with that big Darin grin. I’ll miss his stories about things that had happened at games I had missed, or his latest round of golf.

I’ll always wonder what bothered him so much last Friday that he couldn’t reach out to me, or one of the countless others who felt the same way about Darin as I did.

But, I’ll hold on to the good memories and the admiration I had for this young man who wanted to be a part of helping our athletic program in any way he could. One coach told me Friday that whatever needed to be done, Darin could be counted on to finish the job.

Several years ago, in this very space, I coined a phrase that I’ve used here over and over again – Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog.

Darin was a Bulldog – he wore the blue and white proudly – as proudly as anyone I’ve ever known.

More importantly than that – he was a friend – a very good friend, and I’m going to miss that young man.

Once a Bulldog, always a Bulldog. Darin was certainly a Bulldog, and I was certainly proud to call him my friend.

I’ll see you in the gym