They were gonna take limos to Rupp Arena. Now a small, speechless county waits.
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Sweet Sixteen stories
The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories. Click below to read the stories published so far.
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Editor’s Note: The 2020 Boys’ Sweet 16 was postponed before it began because of the coronavirus pandemic. The stoppage of our annual high school basketball state tournament denied 16 schools and their communities — for many — a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for recognition on one of Kentucky’s most prominent stages. In the absence of basketball, the Herald-Leader is telling their stories.
Speechless.
It was the word that prevailed over all others on the Monday night in Pikeville when Martin County High School defeated Lawrence County, 55-51, for the 15th Region boys’ basketball championship.
The head coach. The players. The superintendent. The fans not old enough to remember the last time the county’s only high school went to the Boys’ Sweet 16. The fans old enough to remember when the county had two high schools, one of which, Inez High School, reigned over all others on the hardwood — twice. They all struggled to find their breath, let alone words, to describe how good it felt for their home — and in the interest of full disclosure, this writer’s home — to earn a place on Kentucky’s biggest basketball stage.
Jaryd Crum, an Inez native and an assistant coach with the Cardinals, was briefly immune from the bout of “speechlessness” going around Appalachian Wireless Arena two weeks ago.
“The only time Martin County’s been in the news the past I don’t know how many years,” Crum said, before pausing to observe Brady Dingess receive the tournament MVP trophy.
“I was on the water board the past two years, so I know all the bad press,” he continued, noting the area’s well-documented issues with its water system. “You see bad water, poverty, and this is such a bright spot for our community. I can’t believe it.”
He repeated, “I can’t believe it,” the phrase that’s prevailed almost every day in the wake of a true pandemic.
Limos
KHSAA Commissioner Julian Tackett announced postponement of the Whitaker Bank/KHSAA Boys’ Sweet 16 six days before Martin County was scheduled to play Owensboro Catholic, the 3rd Region champion, in the first round.
The Cardinals were going to travel to Lexington in style: Tommy Maynard, a fixture in the county who owns and operates a used car business, had scheduled for limousines to pick up Martin County’s players, coaches and cheerleaders at the high school and drive them the full 144 miles to Rupp Arena the week of the Sweet 16.
Oh, and Maynard made his booking before the region championship was played.
“I just wanted to do something good for ’em, man,” Maynard told the Herald-Leader in a phone interview. “When somebody does something good for the community, you oughta support ’em, y’know? You gotta show ’em they’re respected. … You look at us, and we’re in this rural area, and then you look at places like Lexington Catholic, Louisville Ballard, they got all these nice schools, nice facilities, and we’re just as good as them.
“We want to show them that we’re as first-class as they are.”
It could be argued that the nicest high school in all of Kentucky stands at 137 Hollybush Road in Inez. The $30-million project resulted in a state-of-the art, 132,000-square foot facility encompassing dozens of amenities previously unavailable to the county’s student’s: there were the flashy things, like an auditorium and an aerospace lab, but quality-of-life improvements — doors that lock safely without chains! — are just as noticeable in the new space.
Martin County High School opened its doors in the fall and is the successor to Sheldon Clark High School, which in name died last year but in actuality shuttered in 2013, when inspectors deemed that blasting from nearby road construction had made the original SCHS building unfit for use (that was, coincidentally, also the last year Sheldon Clark reached the boys’ region finals). Fittingly, the new school was constructed above the blast site, and with the help of emergency funds from the state stemming from those blasts.
Martin County’s students and staff in the interim between Sheldon Clark’s closure and Martin County’s opening assembled at what was formerly Inez Middle School (those students were consolidated with Warfield Middle, and were the first to adopt the “Martin County” moniker). Five consecutive high school classes graduated from a school built for pre-teens, one with a banner declaring its name in lieu of permanent signage.
“Being stuffed into an old middle school, it really hits hard on a community, and kids and fans get down on themselves,” Chuck White, Martin County’s athletics director, said after the region championship. “… People are excited in Martin County. Martin County has big things going on.”
Optimism
In addition to postponing the tournament indefinitely, the KHSAA put into effect an emergency “dead period,” which annually occurs in the summer months to force coaches and kids to take a break, but with an added exemption to allow coaches to text and remain in contact with their players through a unique and constantly-developing situation.
It broke head coach Jason James’ heart to deliver the news of the postponement to his players last week. Many of them are underclassmen, and will form a nucleus of a team that will probably be picked to win the region again in 2021 — including probable Mr. Basketball finalist Trey James, a Wake Forest commit who’s already the state’s career leader in blocked shots.
There are, however, plenty of teams declared region champs in November 2019 who will tell you just how ruthlessly their peers can treat preseason favorites. Sheldon Clark existed for more than 40 years and made it to one Boys’ Sweet 16, in 1983 (the girls fared much better; they played in nine state tournaments).
“There were a lot of good teams that came through Sheldon Clark and never made it,” James said. “I know it’s a big deal for all the schools, but for our area it feels bigger than maybe for a Johnson Central, who goes a lot, or some of the other big schools that are there a lot more often. We had the biggest crowd at region every night. It just kept growing and growing.”
Life changed fast for everyone in the United States the last couple weeks. The Tuesday night after his team won the region title, James was scouting Owensboro Catholic against Owensboro in the 3rd Region finals, and left feeling like the Cardinals would be able to go toe-to-toe with the Aces. In fewer than 48 hours he wasn’t sure if they’d ever get to take the court against them.
James remains optimistic, though. The KHSAA, unlike the NCAA, has not officially canceled its signature event. He believes if it is actually played, it could rally support statewide that it might not have otherwise if things had gone off without a hitch.
“If it’s in May or whenever it is, so be it,” James said. Maynard’s promise stands, regardless of whether Martin County takes the court in Lexington this year.
“We still want to go to Rupp, for the kids’ sake,” Maynard said. “If they don’t play, I’m still gonna get ‘em a limo and we’re gonna go out and have a good time.”
Believe that.
This story was originally published March 22, 2020 at 6:05 PM.
