Back to regular games – at least for a little while

The holiday season is behind us now (whew!), and we head back to the gym this week for a return to some regular (normal) basketball action.

Pickett County was scheduled to visit The Castle on Tuesday night as I write this week’s column Tuesday morning, and from there, it’s a couple of weeks of normal, tournament free basketball games.

We’ll take a break, for the most part, from home games for the bulk of January, with only Cumberland County coming here next Tuesday night (January 10) for our only home game until at least after the All ‘A’ Classic Regionals.

Of course depending on the All ‘A’ regional outcomes, anything can change with the schedule through the end of January – there are always a couple of games built in that can be scratched off the schedule by either team if necessary.

Then we have to deal with the weather in southern Kentucky as well, which we all know can play havoc with travel plans.

Translation: Keep those schedules handy, and a pencil as well.

Congrats to the Lady Dawgs

Our Lady Dawgs didn’t collect any hardware last week at the Best of the Lakes Classic, but they did finish with a 2-2 count in the three-day event and even during that final loss against a very, very strong North Laurel opponent, left the Lady Jaguars knowing they had been in a battle.

In addition to that, regardless of some grumblings early in the tournament from some Red Boiling Springs fans about officiating quality, our Lady Dawgs and the entire athletic department played the part of tournament host very nicely.

In fact, I made it a point to talk with at least one person from each school, and apart from the aforementioned comments, everyone was more than positive as to how well they had been treated during their three-day stay here.

Congrats to all, again for a nice job hosting.

Nice floor replenish

What had been a dulling finish to our playing floor at The Castle was given a fresh coat of “shine” over the holiday weekend, between the two local tournaments and it was a nice surprise to walk in on for the start of the girls’ tourney last week.

Gym floors should be shiny and bright, and with the new finish that was put in place last week, The Castle looks great again.

New sounds as well

Many have commented on how much better the Public Address system sounds this year, which is directly due to some serious equipment changes that have been made over the past few weeks back in the control room.

We are still “tweaking” and learning the new system’s capabilities and making the necessary fine tunings to get it right, but after a long, long stretch of using a system that was simply worn out, the sound is once again nice quality.

A ref with a shoe problem – his shoestrings tug at his heart

Twice during the past two local tournaments, as games came to a close and substitutes from the far end of the bench were waiting at the official table to check into the game and log at least a few seconds of holiday tournament play, one particular official seemed to be having trouble keeping his shoes tied.

Long-time basketball official Larry Hammer had to call an official time-out on two occasions, stopping the clock in the waning seconds of play, to re-tie the strings on one of his black shoes.

Of course, during the final break in action each time, the young players waiting to check in for those final few seconds of action were motioned into the game by the other officials, all the while Hammer worked on those untied shoe strings.

Hmmm.

Regardless of what is often said by fans and sometimes even coaches, I can attest that for the most part, the people who wear the black and white striped shirts are real human beings too.

I’ll see you in the gym!