Quick heads up before I start, this will be a much longer read than normal so if you don’t have a connection to the Carroll County High School Boys Junior Varsity Basketball team this might be a hard pass.
Anyone who follows my writing ✍ style certainly knows that I’m simply a Aaron Sorkin wannabe. Tonight after getting back from Patrick County I hit play ▶️ on the DVD 📀 where Sorkin is describing the difference between being a person who tells a story and a journalist.
He has penned some of the greatest Screen Plays in the past 40 years and the Haters pounce on every fact that he doesn’t follow to the absolute letter.
I get that because I have to treat a story that could run in the Carroll News as if I am playing a journalist. If I am telling a story for my site I get to have fun with it.
You want the Truth? You can’t Handle the Truth – I still smile everytime I hear that iconic line that Sorkin wrote for Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men back in the 1980’s.
Five reasons that I have a soft spot in my Heart ❤ for Junior Varsity players and Junior Varsity parents.
- They play hard and outside of their Family 👪 and Friends, it seems nobody really is all that interested.
- There Parents face even greater challenges than the Varsity parents because they have to get to a road game 90 minutes earlier.
- The Coaches don’t get the same respect because they’re “just the JV Coach”
- The Parents work for a living and Love their Children just as much as Varsity parents.
- They are our Future !
Prelude – Stockner chose Coach K and Barnes chose Bobby Knight. This is perfect because you now have two great Coaches where one played for the other!!!
Why does Hayden Jackson get to be listed as a star 🌟? It was his Mother 👩 that took the time to tell me that her and her Son enjoy my efforts. Why does that matter so much – because if my site lacks one thing, its interaction. I actually have Zero idea 💡 of who is actually reading and who isn’t????
Blake Reed as a Co-Star 🌟 ??? I am currently asking his Mother 👩 for a Huge assistance right now and I am trying hard to earn Brownie points with her.
The reality is my favorite part of this team is how interchangeable the players are. They are as deep as any squad I have seen at the JV level in a few years.
Opening scene – Knight and K are in the lockeroom pre-game and the two are discussing the challenge awaiting them. Que Knight, with all of his intensity opening up to K about not being sure he has a Blue Print that guarantees him a Victory that night to protect his perfect season ( Also perfect that it was Knight back in 1976 that had the last perfect season in the NCAA Top Level.
Coach K leans into the General as says the following – everything I am on the Basketball 🏀 court is because of you being my mentor. Let me show you how to beat Michigan ( Patrick County) for the National Championship. Knight is trembling as the two embrace and utters, Go out there and Win one for the Gipper.
End of Scene….
Scene 2 ( Larry Bird 🐦 is relevant to the story because he started out as a Freshman on that team before dropping out an going back home to drive a Garbage Truck) Of Course he laced them up again at Indiana State and the rest is History on that one.
Coach K is talking to his team in the huddle and he is explaining to Bird and Stockton his plan. He explained that he needed to help out his mentor by showing him how to win a game.
Bird and Stockton would run through a wall for Coach K. Here’s the plan, Bird you keep playing at three quarters speed and Stockton, you and the others play at half speed to start the game.
The plan was to lull the opponent into a false sense of security. Bird scored the teams first six points and at the end of the first quarter it was 12-11.
Scene 3 – Start of the second quarter, in the Huddle, Coach K says just one word – NOW. The team kicks it into High Gear ⚙ and wins the second quarter 16-5 and head into the lockeroom ahead 28-16.
Scene 4 – Knight is talking to K during the break and challenged him to prove his point because he wasn’t convinced. K heads back out and lights an even hotter flame 🔥 under his team.
Scene 5 – The team flirts with the unattainable PERFECT quarter. The tally for the 7:00 was 22-1. I had to fight with the Director on this one because she said it would be ridiculous to believe 22-1.
Scene 6 – It’s the start of the final quarter and Coach K tells his team its time to call of the Dogs 🐕. We are not going to go all Lane Kiffin on them ( inside joke about the Ole Miss – Duke Bowl game last month). The opponent wins the final stretch 7-2 as the final score is 52-24 with the middle of the game being a 38-6 run.
Scene 7 – Coach K walks 🚶♂️ off the court after the post-game hand ✋ shakes, looks into the eyes 👀 of Coach Knight and says – can you follow my blue print or do you want me to Coach your game too ?
The scene ends with Knight taking a chair 💺 and throwing its across the court, just kidding, even though that did happen once.
Coach Knight repeats the game plan to his undefeated team. Bryce Smoot starring as Johnny Dawkins, Ethan Richardson as Mike Dunleavy Jr, Cody Reece as Bill Laimbeer, Isaiah Easter as Wally Walker and Brayden Smoot as Jon Scheyer.
Scene 8 – The team followed the Map like a Pirate ☠ looking for a buried treasure. End of the first quarter the team trailed 18-9. Knight added one twist by not saying NOW until the halftime talk.
His team came out like a Ball of Fire 🔥, turning a 32-26 deficit into a 61-40 victory to cap the Perfect season. The second half run 🏃♂️ was 34-8 with the fourth quarter being 21-3. Again, there was push back, this time the Producers were saying that nobody would believe 21-3.
Final scene – after Knight cut down the nets, he looks over at his former player and says…..I couldn’t have done it without you, I Love You Man.
As the scene fades out, we here Kris Richardson as Bobby Huggins say- you know that I told you the exact same thing.
Roll Credits – the Morale of the Story is the team remains undefeated because the Junior Varsity led the way……..
Going to stop ✋ fighting Sleep 💤 for a bit and when I wake ⏰ up from a Nap, I will play the role of Journalist and write ✍ a gamer…..
Journalism for JV
Carroll County JV – 12. 16. 22. 2 – 52
Patrick County JV – 11. 5. 1. 7 – 24
Carroll County – Gravley 16, Jackson 10, Reed 8, Rakes 6, Lark 4, Collins 3, Leonard 3, Jones 2.
Coach K’s thoughts :
Wow! What an awesome 3rd quarter! To hold any team to just a single point for seven minutes is quite a feat. We were definitely dialed in defensively.
The guys tonight really had active hands to get deflections and anticipated passes to get steals which led to easy baskets.
Every guy played hard and contributed to this impressive win!
A.S.P.N on The Hill 