Holiday tournaments behind us, time for some normalcy

Last week’s Best of the Lakes Holiday Classic was yet another success for Clinton County and Clinton County High School, which played host to seven visiting schools for the Pool Play style tournament.

Our Lady Dawgs finished with a fourth place claim in the event, behind Wayne County, Ballard High School and the 2018 Best of the Lakes Champion, North Laurel.

As was the case with the boys’ Classic event here the week prior – the Twin Lakes Holiday Classic – last week’s Best of the Lakes Classic was just as its name implies – a classy event all said and done.

Again, I spoke with several of the coaches from the seven visiting schools and a host of fans who were following the teams to Albany and Clinton County for the event, and again it seems that the staff at Clinton County High School are well versed in playing the good host.

Everyone I talked to was pleased with the event and was appreciative of the way they had been welcomed into our community.

As for the importance of the event itself for our business community, consider the number of gallons of gasoline purchased, motel rooms rented and meals bought by the teams and the fans who followed them.

One of our tournament organizers told me last week that two of the local restaurants had called him wanting to get an update on the tournament schedule because when the games ended at each session, they were “getting swamped” with a deluge of customers and wanted to be sure they were prepared at the proper times for the onslaught of business.

All in all, as I mentioned last week as well, it was an honor to be a small part of an event that showcases our school and community with as much class as these two tournaments do.

Congratulations to everyone who had a part in organizing and producing last week’s Best of the Lakes event.

Following the games from Louisville

While Louisville Ballard was playing in last week’s Best of the Lakes Classic, I spent the breaks in those games sending reports via text to a fan in Louisville who was interested in how “her Bruins” were doing each day.

Terrie Castle Gupton, a 1977 CCHS graduate and former cheerleader here, and the daughter of the late Lindle Castle for whom our gymnasium is named, is a teacher now at Ballard High School in Louisville.

Back to a normal stretch of the schedule

If you’ll take a close look at 2018-19 schedule, you’ll find that we’re not only well into this campaign, but believe it or not, we’re well into the second half of the basketball run.

After the brief holiday break this week, things go right back into blur mode with four big games this week and next that will see us playing host to cross-state rival Pickett County on Thursday night, then in the next three game run, finishing out the regular season play against all of the 16th District teams.

Always the first of the four 16th District teams to get the district race behind us, the Lady Dawgs will travel to Metcalfe County this Friday night, January 3, then play host to Cumberland County on Tuesday, January 8, before finishing out the District run on Friday, January 11, over in Russell County against the Lakers.

After that, we dive head-first into the January 14, 17 and 18 All A Classic Regional tournament.

Of course the goal that week is to claim a couple of All “A” Regional championships, making a trip up the road to Richmond for a berth in the All “A” Classic State Tournament.

An additional date that isn’t on the schedule is the makeup game for the Lady Dawgs on Saturday, January 19 for what was to be the season opening game at Garrard County.. Junior Varsity is slated to tip at 3:00 for the makeup date there.

And that’s just part of January.

Told you it was going to get busy – but there’s still a chance to get in on the fun now.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year – it’s time for some normalcy now.