This time last season Head Coach Anthony Barnes was celebrating his first winning season and then came the instant gratification of a rare home playoff game. Elijah Cox was playing the post for Barnes and while the program was pointing up the team wasn’t burdened with high expectations.
Cox has sinced moved on to college basketball 🏀 and Barnes rolled the balls out this fall in hopes of replacing the 6’5 Big Man. Not only did the returning players rally around their Coach and his staff, they individually overachieved , committed to each other in an unselfish manner and then something Magical happened.
It started slow but built up steam in a hurry and by the time the end of the Calender year we were no longer sneaking up on people. By the time the team captured the Championship of the Fort Chiswell tournament there was no hiding from the “noise” that comes with that level of success.
The team currently sits at 21-2 after dropping the Three Rivers District Championship game Thursday night on The Hill.
In the first game of the triple header our Junior Varsity Girls 👧 won their Championship game over Floyd County. How does the JV team finishing up 18-4 tie into this story ?
It’s a rare occasion that a team gets to walk 🚶♂️ off the court after their final game holding their heads up, celebrating a Win. Winning 21 out of 23 doesn’t happen often and in that 23rd game the team experienced something that they hadn’t dealt with before. With 1:57 remaining in the first half, Davis Reitzel fell to the ground near mid court with a dislocated knee.
Fortunately the injury didn’t involve any long term damage (that we know of) but still the team had to try and shake off the effects of watching their teammate and friend lay helplessly on the Gymnasium floor.
Amazingly enough, Bryce Smoot and Isaiah Easter combined for 43 points, including an 8-0 run in the closing minutes to trim the deficit from 13 down to five before the game ended 79-72.
The team is ready to open their post season run 🏃♂️ Tuesday night 🌙 on The Hill. Barnes and Company will host Abingdon and if they advance beyond they will get the thrill of playing at Cassell Coliseum on the campus of Virginia Tech.
Chances are the dream season will end before the team would be cutting down the nets in the Siegal Center at Virginia Commonwealth University. Wow, do I hope that this team gets the Hollywood ending (even though they don’t actually get to cut down the nets) but if they do not we should still celebrate the ride that this group of Student Athletes has taken us on.
Here’s the thoughts from Head Coach Anthony Barnes :
” So last night, what an emotional roller coaster of a night, I had actually along with Coach Redd went and watched Floyd Wednesday night vs Radford after practice to see if they were doing anything different, just like as in past years and this season they come into the game with high energy and physical play, I feel like eventually at some point we would wear them down and finish them off then Davis goes down, it was definitely a momentum swing and we go into half only down 2, we settled some on some shots too quick and other good looks and shots would not go and rattle out, the other coin they didn’t miss and made some tough contested shots. Foul trouble with Easter hurt us, we shot well from floor and decent from 3 but it was just not enough. It was a heavy weight battle, we took some shot the withstood ours and in the end they got the decision. Well coached team.Proud of my guys in Davis player of year, Bryce 1st team and Richardson second team selection. Almost perfect regular season, District Champs first time in 11 years, two 1000 point scorers , on 10 in history. So we dust ourselves off, get up and back to work. Never quitting or giving up. “
We have reached the conclusion of the first act and what a first act it was! We have a few days to let it all soak in and then we start over on act II.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 