Local high school basketball has a lot to offer

This is the time of year that a Kentucky Derby-winning trainer might ask where in this town one could find good high-school basketball.

One night at a Jessieville game, I saw Lynn Whiting (since deceased) sitting beside fellow horseman Grant Forster, the latter never seen without a hat on and, for the last few years, a Derby Day party host across from Churchill Downs.

Sometimes, Lynn would be specific and ask about what we in the sports department called the big three: Hot Springs, Lakeside and Lake Hamilton.

Then and now, the smaller Garland County schools found their audience. The coronation of Jessieville’s new basketball palace made me think the school needed a “sports arena” like the town required a Neiman-Marcus location. Glazener Gymnasium never had enough seats on most any game night, but the portraits seemed to come off the wall when Jessieville needed a basket or defensive stop in a close game. Watching Holli Tucker shoot from the corner and Lori Stephens fling a baseline turnaround are personal ornaments from more than 40 years of watching local hoops. (And, come to think of it the boys’ team usually was pretty good.)

Fountain Lake’s old hangout, replaced by Bass Gymnasium, saw gripping games coached by Dick Warrington and Sammy Lambert, the latter for whom the floor in the new place is named. Matt Carter (CMS alum) and Jake Dettmering (Jessieville) keep it going, and what one would not give to see Casey Sheppard shoot another corner three or Hunter Lively take another charge. The school’s Chloe Pratt, maybe more for volleyball than roundball, made any visit worthwhile

and enriched Vanderbilt with her presence; Fountain Lake volleyball coach Tina Moore has a place in her heart.

Cutter Morning Star has a new pad, having outgrown the old one years ago. Like in old times, Lake Hamilton product Beau Brickell has the Eagles playing at a high level again. So many good players have worn the red and white uniform, but permit me to single out Chris Meseke and Ryan Brown as two I enjoyed watching (Trevor Hamilton completes the trifecta). Nancy Wood and Sarah Hart starred for the Lady Eagles, who just couldn’t get past Jessieville or, later, Mount Ida.

Mountain Pine brings to mind the McIlroy sisters, Virginia and Stacy, from the early 1990s as coached by Jessieville alum Marty Castleberry.

LaMont Page, a disciple of the late Alvin Corder at Hot Springs, did quite a restoration job with the boys’ team a few years back. After some lean years, the Lady Red Devils are winning at a high rate.

Lake Hamilton may knock on the door until it breaks through in both varsity divisions, the boys going since 1963 without a state title and the girls since 2009. Giants have walked the earth in any building Lake Hamilton called a home floor. Ty Robinson, bound for Florida Atlantic next season, could have played in any era; same was true of the former Tiffany Wait, who if I told the ex-Arkansas women’s coach once it was a thousand times that he erred in not recruiting the fundamentally sound future Kentucky player for Bernadette Locke-Mattox.

I liked Lakeside games more when the band played “Tequila” and, say, Landon Trusty was playing above the rim and Allison Norman was leading the Lady Rams. Sue Bridges, wife of the late Lakeside coach, turned on a heckler one night in old Ram Fieldhouse. Gene Adams, whose practices were exquisite, coached in a muted fury; an ex-player or two has noted the Oaklawn success of the horse Coach Adams. Tommy White, the last Garland County coach to win a state title in boys’ basketball, took Adams’ teachings to another level.

As for Hot Springs, I have not watched a game in what replaced Trojan Fieldhouse, where the sightlines weren’t much but Eddie Sutton stopped by one night to watch Bryant’s Willie Cutts. Admittedly I’m missing out on something, but it pains me that Alvin Corder, Jim Elser or three other Lady Trojan coaches (besides Elser) to win state titles are not honored with court recognition. Still time to correct this oversight.