Looking Back

As the chill of November settles in and the beautiful luster of color turns brown and begins to fall through the breeze of yet another brief autumn, the Corbin Redhounds are only five games with Garrard County short of an undefeated season as the Hounds have ripped through yet another hapless district opponent by a tally of 55-6.
All good things must come to an end, however, as next week’s encounter with Wayne County will end the schedule of the Redhounds annual walk in the park into the playoffs.
The Hounds should be prepared as they lose only six seniors from this year’s team and should be ready for a much more demanding district schedule next year.
It was in the November of several decades ago that the furnaces of small county schools, even smaller black schools, and even smaller Catholic schools began to fire up to warm the tiny gyms for roundball season.
I had transferred from Corbin High School where coach Harry Taylor was blessed with as much talent as any school in the state of Kentucky to Saint Camillus Academy. It was the best move I ever made, and playing in the YMCA for a home gym was no less important to me than playing in Madison Square Garden.
The teams we played against such as Poplar Creek, Woodbine, Rockholds, Pleasant View, Middlesboro Lincoln, Barbourville Rosenwald, Red Bird, Henderson Settlement, Lynn Camp and several other small schools on a high school basketball court.
One of those players was a young man named Nolan Ferrel, who played for the Lynn Camp Wildcats.
Nolan was a tough hard nosed little guy who used to help my grandfather, Sam Brafford, kill hogs and dress them around this time of the year. My grandfather thought a lot of young Nolan. As it turned out Nolan’s grandson is Issac Wilson, a freshman point guard with this year’s edition of the Corbin Redhounds. It’s a shame Nolan could not have lived to see Issac play, he would have truly enjoyed it.
I just got my schedule for basketball season for the Corbin Redhounds and the Corbin Lady Hounds. The Redhounds have 13 home games on this year’s schedule, not to mention the Cumberland Falls Invitational. Knoxville Catholic will return again this year. This should be a very entertaining year for the Redhound fans beginning with the Middlesboro Yellow Jackets on November 29.
After watching the Wildcats of Kentucky in exhibition games, I am very confident the basketball playing ‘Cats are going to be very good. I really like Jodie Meeks, the freshman from Georgia and Derrick Jasper, who looked very smooth and in charge when he had the ball. I do however, feel Randolph Morris, regardless of his ability does not show initiative. Morris plays in spurts and tends to lack motivation. Bobby Parks looks great.
The football playing ‘Cats have yet to sell me on their progress with their win over Georgia. Vanderbilt will be a tossup game, but if they can win they will probably get a bowl bid.
Congratulations to the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets on an outstanding season even though they lost to the Green Dragons of Harlan in the first game of the playoffs.
I would like to borrow an excerpt from a book my son, Jeff, put together for me for Father’s Day. This was a large book with many lessons to learn from life.
There is a part in the movie ‘A Bron Tale’ where Robert DeNiro’s character in the movie told his son “the saddest thing in life is wasted time”. Good movie, great line. I think about in it sports and I think about it in life.”