A sight that has been common for the past six years has been the Spring Garden Lady Panthers hoisting the Cherokee County Tournament trophy. Spring Garden will be going for its seventh straight county title this year.
The day before the Lady Panthers have to let it go back to tournament officials, team members put their fingerprints on it when it’s taken out of their trophy case, with hopes it will be returned in just a few short days.
“We take pride in wanting that thing in our trophy case,” Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin said. “We put a lot of emphasis on that. I think our kids had forgotten about that until I brought it up (Wednesday). We started talking about it, and I saw some goose bumps go up on some of them.”
Even more goose bumps will almost certainly be felt by the Lady Panthers today. They were once again tabbed this year’s top seed in the 2010 Cherokee County Tournament.
Spring Garden (10-7) will open tournament play next Thursday at the Gadsden State-Cherokee Arena, when it faces the winner of No. 4 Cedar Bluff (6-8) and No. 5 Gaylesville (4-11). The Cedar Bluff-Gaylesville game tips off the tournament on Tuesday at 6 p.m.
Second-seeded Sand Rock (10-8) tangles with No. 3 Cherokee County (4-5) in other opening-round action next Friday at 6 p.m. The tournament championship will be Jan. 16 at 6 p.m.
Austin said this year’s tournament is “good timing” for his Lady Panthers. They’ve lost four of their last six games.
“We need some excitement,” he said. “We need something positive – not that this year hasn’t been positive – it’s just not as much as we’ve had in the past.
“This is a different season for us right now. We’ve lost more games half of this year than we’ve lost the last four seasons combined. Is it adversity? No, it’s not really adversity, but it’s not the normal route we’ve been doing things. The No. 1 thing right now is confidence. We’re flirting with that line of lack of confidence, but at the same time, I think we’re coming out of that shell right now.”
Austin believes this year’s tournament will be as competitive as years’ past.
“I’m looking forward to this challenge,” he said. “There’s four teams in this thing – and even the fifth team – could win it if they get some scoring. It’s going to be competitive. It’s always been competitive.
“It’s an honor to be able to hold that top spot, but it’s just preliminary. You’re still that No. 1 that everybody wants to beat. You’ve got to defend it, but at the same time, it’s something your kids feel good about. It gives them a sense of urgency I think when they say ‘Hey, we’re No. 1. We need to honor this.’”
B-Team Girls
Cherokee County takes on Sand Rock in the Cherokee County B-Team girls tournament title game on Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. at the Gadsden State-Cherokee Arena.
8th Grade Girls Tournament
In the 8th grade girls Cherokee County Tournament, No. 4 Sand Rock will take on No. 5 Gaylesville on Saturday at 9 a.m. (weather permitting). The winner advances to meet top-seed Cherokee County on Saturday at 10:15 a.m.
In other opening-round action, No. 2 Spring Garden faces No. 3 Cedar Bluff on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. The championship game is set for Monday at 5 p.m. All games are at Sand Rock High School.
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