Looking Back

The regular basketball season has come full circle, and now basketball enters March and the most exciting time of the year for roundball fans.
It brings with it the highs of victory in games and championships, but in the end, only a few are able to enjoy those fruits of victory. In each of Kentucky’s 16 regions only one team will advance to the big show, all others will be heart broken at the loss of opportunity to extend their season.
Oh well, you might say, there’s always next year. Not so if you are a senior.
I took particular notice of Jamie Bonza of the Corbin High School Lady Redhounds on “Senior Night”. I have always enjoyed watching Jamie play, from her freshman year on. On Senior Night, however, I watched as she and her mother fought back the tears and I remembered the feeling all those years ago when as a senior I expressed that same feeling of losing something that meant so much to me.
Jamie has had a very memorable year, however, as she and her fellow seniors Morgan Barley and Bailee Gambrell under coach Jennifer Parsons have led the Redhounds to a 22-4 season. Coach Parsons has improved the Lady Redhounds performance each season since her arrival, and I feel they will do well in post-season play.
The Redhounds of the male gender are very fortunate as well, as their team is led by three strong seniors in Jordan Noble, Andrew Parks and Brad Lawson.
Noble is a tremendous offensive threat and capable of putting up 25 to 30 points in any game. Jordan shoots the three pointer as well as anybody that has played for the Redhounds. Noble also plays good defense and rebounds quite well.
Parks is the hardest playing kid I have ever witnessed at Corbin High School. Andrew is at full gate on the tipoff and never lets up. Parks is among the leading rebounders in the state and is a strong offensive threat down low.
Brad Lawson came to play directly from a great football season and has established himself as a solid performer on defense along with being a fighter on the offensive boards.
Brad’s presence is really needed and could be the difference of how far the Redhounds are to advance into the tournament.
Isaac Mills, who had a great senior season in football was deprived of his senior season of basketball due to a football related injury. Mills would have added even more senior leadership.
This group of seniors were freshmen when coach Tony Pietrowski took the head coaching position a few seasons back, and I sense they have a special place in Pietrowski’s heart.
Before the high school basketball season had officially started, I watched a scrimmage between Clay County and Louisville Ballard played at Gilliam Gym. My opinion then and what remains my opinion today is that Louisville Ballard will be the state champion for 2005. The Bruins have quickness, adequate size and shoot the ball very well.
It is always this time of the year my thoughts drift back to a quiet legend, Harry Taylor. Corbin High School’s most successful basketball coach ever was at this best come March.
Taylor created a dynasty in the years 1947 through 1952 by totally dominating the 13th region. Coach Taylor had a very quiet demeanor but as a young man, he was a fierce competitor, and beneath that cool exterior he was still that same fierce competitor.
A good trivia question might be, who were the two individuals from the state of Kentucky who set national records in the world of sports in three consecutive years?
A clue is that they are both from Corbin. Frank Selvey set a record of points scored in a college division one game, while playing at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina by scoring 100 points against Newberry College in February of 1954.
In the fall of 1955, during football season, Calvin Bird set a national record for points scored by a high school junior with 163 points. Bird also established a new record for high school players again in the fall of 1956 by scoring 264 points.