One down, one to go . . .

It’s long been known that I’m not a huge fan of holiday tournaments, but I’ll have to admit, since Clinton County started hosting our own tournaments – boys and girls – giving myself, fans, players and parents, the chance to at least stay in Clinton County for the holiday season, it’s been a little easier to take.

What’s made it even better has been the fact that the two Clinton County holiday tournaments, the Twin Lakes Holiday Classic on the boys’ side, and the Best of the Lakes Holiday Classic on the girls’ side, both attract top-notch talented teams.

That in turn, makes for some fantastic high school basketball action.

Case in point was last week’s boys’ Twin Lakes Holiday Classic.

With a five team field, each playing four games over a three-day stretch, each facing each other and each playing two games on one of those three days, last week’s Twin Lakes Classic was a fan’s treat.

With 10 games on the schedule, fans watched two games that went into overtime, two regulation length games decided by two points or less and four regulation length games decided by spans of single digits.

Our Dawgs picked up wins over Monterey, Tennessee and Glasgow for a 2-2 run in the Classic and a third place finish.

Rockcastle County earned the championship title with Morgan County taking the runner-up trophy back to their home.

Congrats are in order for the two Clinton County players who earned Player of the Game awards last week, Cohen Davis for his performance in the Monterey game and Cannon Young for his off the bench play in Friday’s game against Glasgow.

The Bulldogs are headed to Leitchfield this week to compete in a holiday tournament in Grayson County.

This week, it’s the Lady Dawgs who will be hosting their own holiday tournament, the Best of the Lakes Classic in The Castle on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Adair County, Butler County, Glasgow and McCreary Central will be coming to Clinton County for the three day event.

With the same structure as last week’s tournament, each team will face each other and each will play two games on one of the three days.

A point system beginning with head to head wins and number of wins will be used to determine the Best of the Lakes champion.

Come on out to The Castle this week, and enjoy some fantastic girls basketball action.

An Athletic Director’s job description

has a wide array of duties

Clinton County High School Athletic Director Darrell Thompson and Assistant AD Gina Poore were a busy duo last week during the Twin Lakes Classic, and their duties go far beyond making sure game officials are taken care of and teams know which dressing room to use.

Every tournament detail that comes across as a question during the classics, at one point or another, is discussed and addressed by one of them.

Beyond that, their jobs can also include a host of other duties – straightening up player benches, disinfecting players’ (or as was the case last week, an official’s) spilled blood from the floor, or wiping up spilled water along team benches in between games.

Hats off to both Thompson and Poore for their efforts last week in making sure everything went smoothly, and as is evident from this photo of Thompson tidying up around one of the team benches in between games, making sure the Clinton County image to our visitors was one of being a first class host.

Out with the old, welcome to the new

Again, as was our wish last week, from our Clinton County News family to all of our readers and advertisers, who together make our existence meaningful …

Happy New Year!