Sad news for the Bulldog community

It was another round of sad news that came to the Bulldog community last week when we learned that Mark Dalton, a.k.a. Tank, had suffered what was apparently a heart attack and had died.

Mark was a mountain of a man – thus the moniker “Tank” – who first made his presence known on the football field when he was in high school as a player for the Bulldogs in the late 1970s.

Somewhat of a “gentle giant”, he seldom became riled, but he always held his ground – both on the field and later in life.

As adults, I spent quiet a bit of time with Mark and his family earlier, on the lake, on a few overnight trips here and there as well as some golfing excursions several years ago, and he was always a pleasure to be around and a lot of fun as well.

After his son, Takota, began playing sports, Mark renewed his interest in football and for the past several years, had joined the Bulldog coaching staff, working with our gridiron teams as a line coach.

In addition, the basketball teams were also very close to Mark as he was often the bus driver for the Bulldogs when they headed to out of town games.

Our sincere condolences go out to his immediate family and to his Bulldog family as well for this loss.

Dawgs reclaim the championship hardware

Our Bulldogs, coaches and fans filled the floor Friday night at Cumberland County High School as we laid claim once again to the 16th District Basketball Championship trophy.

After thumping Russell County in the title game 69-51, the Dawgs spent some time celebrating, cutting down the nets, posing for photos with the new hardware, donning new championship shirts and just savoring in the moment.

Then, it was back to work this past weekend, with the next objective on the minds of the players and coaches – the 4th Region Tournament in Bowling Green.

Fans all know by now that Clinton County will be heading to Diddle Arena for a first round game against the Gators of Greenwood in the nightcap this Wednesday (March 1).

I’ve been working behind this keyboard for longer than I care to admit now, and I have to say, I have never been around a group of young men who had hearts as big and a will to succeed as much as this group has.

What they need now is a sea of blue in Bowling Green on Wednesday night. Granted, because of the tournament date and our publication dates, many of you won’t be reading this until Thursday, but at least half of our local readers are newsstand readers and if you are seeing these words on Wednesday – grab your blue and white and fire up the car.

It’s just a short ride to Bowling Green and a huge crowd in Diddle for Wednesday night’s game is important.

Coach Todd Messer told me how proud he was of the Clinton County crowd at Friday night’s district championship game, and I’ll have to agree it was one of the best crowds I’ve seen in some time.

Let’s continue that for this next round of games and let our Bulldogs know that their home-town community is behind them.

Albany and Clinton County is the smallest community of the eight involved in this 4th Region Tourney, but there is no reason we can’t put the largest following of fans in the seats at Diddle this week.

Go Dawgs – you gotta believe… We do!

It’s March (finally) and tournament time is in full swing, so . . .

I’ll see you in the gym!