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And for those who missed out in the third round at Sylva, it was one of the best high school basketball games I have witnessed with East defensively holding the lead in the last 100 seconds to win.
After East (24-1) stormed the court of previously undefeated Smoky Mountain last Friday night, it was good to see celebration for the school, the kids, and even for Coach Brad Levine, Coach Howard Hamilton and Coach Robert Boykins. All have seen a number of highs and lows in the last four to five years, including a three-win season.
However, it was an earlier exit for East Rutherford girls, who lost to Brevard in the first round of the 2A playoffs this past week. East (14-10) girls had an up-and-down season, but knocked off Patton (beat East twice in the regular season) in the SMAC tourney to grab their biggest win of the year.
Thomas Jefferson’s girls also lost in the first round of the 1A playoffs to Murphy. It was the second year in a row that the Lady Gryphons made the postseason. As for strides, no other team except volleyball in the school’s short history has been to postseason, twice.
R-S Central’s boys rounded out their season as well during the first round of the 3A playoffs to a solid Hickory club. The Hilltoppers (11-12) were a strange team to diagnose this season, but competitive. They did manage to knock off a very-athletic Asheville team twice this season for key wins.
Meeting the same fate in Hickory were the R-S Central’s girls in the third round of the 3A playoffs. The Lady Hilltoppers (20-7), who recorded the second most wins in school history this season has won atleast 18 games in the previous three years. It’s not hard to recognize, Coach Darius Fuller is doing something right at “The Palace“.
Sometimes, we have no idea when feel good stories can hit close to home. It certainly did for Rutherford County resident and NASCAR team owner, Jimmy Means in Daytona.
Means, who fields a full-time NASCAR Nationwide Series operation in Forest City, had Bobby Santos III driving the well-known #52 during Daytona Speedweeks. However, something in the steering, broke during practice, which sent the machine violently into the SAFER barrier just before the entrance of pit road. Santos was okay, but the car was destroyed.
Unfortunately, it was the only car that Means had brought with him to Daytona. Instead of packing their bags and heading to the house, an old friend stopped by his hauler and had the fix. It was Dale Earnhardt Jr.
In short, Junior supplies Means with a backup car and not only does Santos make the field, he ends up driving it to a 17th place finish.
Santos sat tenth in driver points after Daytona and for a team who has struggled to make races in the previous years, it was an outstanding start and story to the 2011 season for the hard-working Means.
*Trivia Question! Who are the four Daytona 500 winners that have driven for Jimmy Means in their career?
