‘We’ve got to win this.’ New gym helps inspire historic run to Sweet 16.
READ MORE
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.
Expand All
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.
Before the polish of a shiny new gym and a 10th Region title, Clark County’s boys’ basketball program had some rough edges.
“Early season, it was tough, because everybody was, like, fighting in the locker room and whatever and was arguing a lot,” junior Jared Wellman said. “Toward the end of the season, there was none of that. Everybody was just like one family. That’s what we’re going to take away from it.”
The holiday stretch brought tournament losses to (still) undefeated Ashland Blazer, Butler and McCracken County. Things settled down in January as anticipation built for the opening of the new gym.
George Rogers Clark High School unveiled GRC Arena on Feb. 11 after years spent playing at the old high school (now middle school) because of how the school district decided to fund the athletics facilities years after the new school was built.
Its first pair of games saw a girls’ team blowout and a nervy boys’ double-overtime win over Madison Southern. But it might have been the back-to-back losses the week before to 10th Region rivals Bourbon County and Mason County that really got the players’ attention.
“Me and KJ (Rucker), one of our seniors, we ended up texting each other after we lost and we just said, ‘Hey man, it’s our senior year, we got to get a pep in our step,’ Lincoln Bush said. “We’ve got to win this. We got to win it for Winchester. We got to win it for our school — just do something special to be remembered, especially with the new gym opening.”
Players began to hang out together more, work extra and build trust, Wellman said. It paid off.
The Cardinals reeled off 10 straight victories, nine of them on the home floor where they hosted both the 40th District and 10th Region tournaments. The new home court advantage helped.
“Just the feeling of having basically our whole town show up and support us and having everybody behind us, it’s great,” Wellman said.
“It was just everybody — people that we never seen come to our games were coming,” Bush said. “It was just it was a cool feeling.”
Bush grabbed 19 rebounds to go with nine points in the 53-50 region championship game win over Montgomery County. Sophomore Jerone Morton led three other players in double figures with 16 points. It was Clark’s first region championship since 2012.
The trials along the way helped make his team mentally tough for the stretch run, Clark County Coach Josh Cook said.
“It was kind of cool to see the kids pull together and be able to accept one another personality-wise,” Cook said. “We wanted to make sure mentally we were the toughest team at the right time.”
They’ll likely be one of the only Clark teams to go undefeated in the new arena, as well.
“You’re always playing to honor the past, but it’s not very often you get to start off in a new place where you also want to play for the future,” Cook said. “How often can you say you ended the season tied for first with 16 other teams? We’re a part of history: won district in the new gym; won region in the new gym; went undefeated in the new gym. And it’s the year of the coronavirus. This will always be remembered, in my opinion.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 4:36 PM.
