It’s tough for us watching the high school playoffs and championship. We have relationships with so many players and coaches on both teams that while we enjoy every win, we still feel every loss.
The state title games this past Saturday were no exception. The above video is of the final second in regulation for the 4A game, between Broughton High School and Olympic High School. For Olympic, Trey Mitchell (SG/SF, 6’5″, 2013) attended last summer’s Basketball Elite Southeast Summer Showcase, and had a solid performance, making the all-star game. We watched B.J. Gladden (SF/PF, 6’5″, 2013) on the road with his AAU team, the CP3 All-Stars, on the road as they made the Nike EYBL final four in Augusta, GA last July. We scouted Jevon Patton (PG, 5’9″, 2013) last season as he was the engine that pushed Highland Tech in the playoffs. Deriece Parks, CJ Jackson, Dante Simmons and the rest of Olympic were in one of our first broadcasts of the year as they hosted a talented Davie County HS team in Charlotte.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, we’ve watched Devonte Graham (PG, 6’1″, 2013) as a talented AAU player with Garner Road, and saw him compete with some of the most elite PGs in the nation at the CP3 Elite Guard camp. When App State landed him, we knew they’d gotten a steal. Cameron Gottfried and James Hemphill are both players who are scouts have seen multiple times and helped get Broughton to the title game.
So it’s not easy; it’s actually impossible to root for either team, and we feel as bad for the losers as we feel good for the winners.
And starting now, we’ll start looking ahead to next season and see which players we’ll be seeing in the 2014 title games.