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I will never dunk

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I will never experience the joys of dunking a basketball in my life.
Sure, I dunked all over my modified Nerf rim (so it would not break) growing up. My friend lowered his goal to eight feet (later to eight and half to make us feel more manly) during our pickup games so that we could dunk all over each other.
None of that is quite the same as being able to pick up any regulation basketball and go run and dunk, cleanly mind you, a basketball through any regulation height rim.
I just turned 28 and I quit my athletic pursuits early on in college. I like to think I can run and jump the same as I remember or better. Years of inactivity and weight gain have me convinced that even though most professional athletes’ primes are in their late 20s, my athletic prime has passed me by. I do not want to test it because it will probably just confirm it.
My height is 5 foot 10 inches and my last measured vertical in high school was around 24 inches. The closest I could get was the middle of the net. I was never close at all, which I think is a good thing.
My friend Andrew is slightly taller and more athletic than me. He was always so tantalizingly close to dunking it drove him mad. He could grab the rim, but just could not get high enough to get a regulation basketball through. Dunking a small toddler’s ball gave him hope he could will the extra inches he needed out of himself if he kept trying, but I witnessed him try and fail for several hours at different points of his life.
Junior high is when you first start hearing about other kids your age dunking. Even if you did not go to school with a kid who could dunk, you always heard about a kid at another school who could.
If someone at your school could, it would usually take a lot of convincing to get them to even start attempting in front of everyone to confirm their dunking prowess.
By high school, the mystique kind of goes away in some communities as players grow tall enough it becomes more embarrassing they cannot dunk if they are a certain height, than the fact they can.
Some players might dunk every time through the layup line, but if they never get that perfect breakaway scenario with no one contesting them and the score perfectly out of reach to risk it, then they never do it.
Still, this is closer than I will ever get so I asked some current players on the Bowie High School basketball team to explain the feeling.

To read more pick up the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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SPORTS

Jackrabbits blow out City View

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The Bowie Jackrabbits beat down City View on the road on Monday by run-rule to pick up a district win.
The Jackrabbits won 15-0 after five innings due to run-rule as they dominated against the Mustangs.
Bowie was coming off a close loss at Holliday in a game it nearly came back to win, so took out its frustration on a struggling City View team.
The Jackrabbits got going early as Troy Kesey hit a solo home run with two outs to get a rally going for the team. Two batters later Edmond De Leon hit a two-run home run.
Rayder Mann hit a ground ball to third base that resulted in an error that drove in a run. Cy Egenbacher then hit an RBI single to put Bowie up 5-0 before the Mustangs had even hit.
After a scoreless second inning, the Jackrabbits got back going in the third. Boston Farris and Seth Mann both hit a two RBI doubles.
Kesey and Hayden Rodriguez followed with RBI singles to make it 11-0 for Bowie.
The Jackrabbits kept the pressure in the fourth inning. Farris hit a three-run home run and Kesey later drove in another run with a double to make it 15-0 for Bowie.
The game continued into the fifth inning and City View needed to score at least six runs to keep the game going. The Mustangs broke up Kesey’s no-hitter on the mound with three straight singles to load the bases up with no outs.
Kesey finished strong, striking out the next two batters before inducing a fly ball to center field for the final out.
The Jackrabbits won 15-0.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Baseball Roundup

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Nocona
The Nocona Indians got some revenge by beating Perrin-Whitt on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 5-3 to hopefully make up for losing the previous game in the final inning against the Pirates.
Nocona had lost two days earlier to Perrin-Whitt 3-2 after leading for the entire game until the final inning.
The second game it was the Pirates that led for the majority of the game, leading 2-1 after the first inning. The Indians tied the score 2-2 after the third inning, but Perrin-Whitt got the lead back in the fourth inning with one run to make it 4-3.
Nocona took control in the sixth inning when Wesley Murpehy drove in two runs with a double. Brody Langford followed him with an RBI single to double the Indians score and put them up 6-4.
This time around, Nocona’s defense held on in the final inning, allowing only one base runner before closing the game with little trouble.

Missing scores
Scores from Saint Jo and Bellevue are not updated due to games being delayed due to weather late last week.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Bowie softball season comes to an end

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The Bowie Lady Rabbits came up just short of winning their final game at City View on Friday.
The Lady Mustangs held off a furious Lady Rabbits rally in the seventh inning to scrape out a win 11-10.
Bowie was entering the game knowing it was the last game of the season no matter what so it came out loose and ready.
The Lady Rabbits took control early. Chloe Kinney scored due to an error trying to pick her off. Sage Gossett hit a single that drove in one run and an error on the throw allowed another run to score.
Several batters later, Beau Combs and Victoria Cox both hit RBI singles to make it 5-0 for Bowie.
The Lady Mustangs scored two runs to make cut the lead to 5-2 after the first inning.
Bowie scored one run in the second inning when Serenity Klump was able to score from third base due to an error by the catcher. City View equaled that run in the same inning with an RBI double.
After the teams exchanged scoreless innings in the third and fourth, things picked up in the fifth inning.
Kaylie Kinney hit an RBI double with two outs to extend Bowie’s lead to 7-3.
The Lady Mustangs answered with a huge inning to get back in the game. Three singles and two errors allowed City View to score four runs and tie the score up at 7-7.
After the Lady Rabbits offense could not get anything going in the sixth inning, the Lady Mustangs picked up where they left off.
Five straight singles, one walk and a passed ball allowed City View to score four more runs to take the lead 11-7 heading into the final inning.
With Bowie down to its last three outs of the season, the team buckled up to get something going.
Cox hit a one out double. Chloe Kinney followed with a single that drove her in. After a strikeout and Kinney advancing to second base after a passed ball, Klump drove her in with a double.
After a walk, Gossett came through and hit a single that drove in one more run to cut City View’s lead to one run.
With the tying run in scoring position, Bowie was in good condition but was also down to its last out.
Unfortunately, the next batter struck out looking to end the game and the Lady Rabbits season.
City View won 11-10.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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