You scared the braids out of those Avinger kids...so so close. You boys make guys like me very proud to be a part of six-man schools.
Avinger is no ordinary small school. They play basketball 24-7-300 plus days a year. I know this because I played against them for three years way back in the '70s. For you Cowboys to not only compete with the likes of Avinger, but actually be in position to win that game is truly amazing. Nothing has changed around Avinger in the last forty years when it comes to basketball. The kids there love and live everything to do with it.
Wen you boys in Happy and all the other football schools were rising early for the start of two-a-days, kids in Avinger had been in their gym all summer. When football players were soaking in Saturday morning whirl pools and ice baths, Avinger players were shooting hundreds of jumpers and working on dribbling and passing skills.
You were so close Happy. The people from Avinger were in a state of shock. I wish I could have found one of their past greats from the 1977 state championship team, just to watch his reactions to the game that was in doubt for so long.
His name was Rufus. Rufus was a roundball phenom. Everything about Rufus spelled basketball. From his foot-deep afro to his skinny, ragged physique, he smelled and looked like a gym-rat. And he broke every rule of basketball we were taught back in those days. But it never hurt his ability to play. The fundamental rules of proper playing didn't apply to Rufus because of the amount of time and energy he sacrificed to basketball. Its like this: if you shoot the wrong way enough times, you eventually make the adjustments needed to develop a dangerous weapon. His shot was a work of art. So was his dribble style and passing technique. Every thing he did seemed flamboyant and hot doggish. But to him it was just regular ball. I watched him perform in four games our 8th grade year, three our 9th year and two the following season, and in that time he never shot, passed or rebounded like we were all taught by some real good run-and-gun coaches.
Rufus had the kind of shot many of us used down in the second and third grades...that two-handed launch from the right shoulder that appeared to be doomed to miss way right from the moment the ball was released. But not Rufus. His ball was the first I had ever seen sail thru a net and barely move it. His arc was higher than the backboard which seemed to make the ball smaller as it passed thru the net.
The first time we played his team in the Karnack tournament we throttled them 30 or 35 points. Rufus scored all but five or six free throws. Thenext week we caught them in the James Bowie tournament and overcame another 25 by Rufus and some impressive hustle to win by maybe 20 . Then we caught them in a third tournament, the place I have forgotten, maybe Queen City or Elysian Fields, and they showed some real improvement. They were no longer the Rufus show. The other boys were playing real tuff man defense and were using two and three screens to give each other close shots all night. We beat them by 12 or so, but only with the help of foul trouble that kept several of their players on the bench for long periods of time. The score was high for a junior high contest...something like 77 to 65. Rufus had another 25 or 30. We tried four different players on him, even doubled him in the fourth quarter. He was amazing.
Then we caught them in the second round of the Daingerfield tournament after losing to a super host team by 12 or 13 points. We were so upset by the loss to Daingerfield that we did not play a good game in our fourth meeting against Rufus and Avinger. Well, to be honest, their strategy of stalling the game so froze our already comatose minds that we lost a barn-burner by a score of 12 to 15. Rufus scored every point. He had averaged almost 30 points a game against us the first three contests.
That team went on to win state four years later as seniors. Oh, and Daingerfield did likewise.
Basketball in Avinger has not changed much since those 1970s battles. They live basketball and do so from the moment they start kindergarten. They do not have to wait for football to end in late November or early December. By the time you Happy Cowboys walked onto the court for the first time, the players in Avinger had already been playing since June and had probably shot fifteen or twenty thousand balls. And Happy, you came seconds from upsetting their gym rat butts.
Yes, never be content with almost, but be proud of what you accomplished. When was the last time a Happy team played in the state basketball championships.
Avinger is no ordinary small school. They play basketball 24-7-300 plus days a year. I know this because I played against them for three years way back in the '70s. For you Cowboys to not only compete with the likes of Avinger, but actually be in position to win that game is truly amazing. Nothing has changed around Avinger in the last forty years when it comes to basketball. The kids there love and live everything to do with it.
Wen you boys in Happy and all the other football schools were rising early for the start of two-a-days, kids in Avinger had been in their gym all summer. When football players were soaking in Saturday morning whirl pools and ice baths, Avinger players were shooting hundreds of jumpers and working on dribbling and passing skills.
You were so close Happy. The people from Avinger were in a state of shock. I wish I could have found one of their past greats from the 1977 state championship team, just to watch his reactions to the game that was in doubt for so long.
His name was Rufus. Rufus was a roundball phenom. Everything about Rufus spelled basketball. From his foot-deep afro to his skinny, ragged physique, he smelled and looked like a gym-rat. And he broke every rule of basketball we were taught back in those days. But it never hurt his ability to play. The fundamental rules of proper playing didn't apply to Rufus because of the amount of time and energy he sacrificed to basketball. Its like this: if you shoot the wrong way enough times, you eventually make the adjustments needed to develop a dangerous weapon. His shot was a work of art. So was his dribble style and passing technique. Every thing he did seemed flamboyant and hot doggish. But to him it was just regular ball. I watched him perform in four games our 8th grade year, three our 9th year and two the following season, and in that time he never shot, passed or rebounded like we were all taught by some real good run-and-gun coaches.
Rufus had the kind of shot many of us used down in the second and third grades...that two-handed launch from the right shoulder that appeared to be doomed to miss way right from the moment the ball was released. But not Rufus. His ball was the first I had ever seen sail thru a net and barely move it. His arc was higher than the backboard which seemed to make the ball smaller as it passed thru the net.
The first time we played his team in the Karnack tournament we throttled them 30 or 35 points. Rufus scored all but five or six free throws. Thenext week we caught them in the James Bowie tournament and overcame another 25 by Rufus and some impressive hustle to win by maybe 20 . Then we caught them in a third tournament, the place I have forgotten, maybe Queen City or Elysian Fields, and they showed some real improvement. They were no longer the Rufus show. The other boys were playing real tuff man defense and were using two and three screens to give each other close shots all night. We beat them by 12 or so, but only with the help of foul trouble that kept several of their players on the bench for long periods of time. The score was high for a junior high contest...something like 77 to 65. Rufus had another 25 or 30. We tried four different players on him, even doubled him in the fourth quarter. He was amazing.
Then we caught them in the second round of the Daingerfield tournament after losing to a super host team by 12 or 13 points. We were so upset by the loss to Daingerfield that we did not play a good game in our fourth meeting against Rufus and Avinger. Well, to be honest, their strategy of stalling the game so froze our already comatose minds that we lost a barn-burner by a score of 12 to 15. Rufus scored every point. He had averaged almost 30 points a game against us the first three contests.
That team went on to win state four years later as seniors. Oh, and Daingerfield did likewise.
Basketball in Avinger has not changed much since those 1970s battles. They live basketball and do so from the moment they start kindergarten. They do not have to wait for football to end in late November or early December. By the time you Happy Cowboys walked onto the court for the first time, the players in Avinger had already been playing since June and had probably shot fifteen or twenty thousand balls. And Happy, you came seconds from upsetting their gym rat butts.
Yes, never be content with almost, but be proud of what you accomplished. When was the last time a Happy team played in the state basketball championships.
