SPORTS
I will never dunk
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.
Nocona got its new press box into place this week at Jack Crane Stadium. The old press box, which was in place for more than 60 years, was taken out in early June and moved to Indian Valley Raceway. The new press box was by the Southern Bleacher Company out of Graham. Athletic Director Black Crutsinger said they looked at a lot of press boxes and decided they liked the one at Lindsay High School and went with that model. Sean Hutson operated the crane from the Hurd Crane Service that put the press box up for Nocona.
Sunset native Cason Richey (right) and his team roping partner Beldon Cox from Weatherford repeated as the International Finals Youth Rodeo champions last weekend at Shawnee, OK. Richey and Cox won the previous year and were able to complete the repeat by catching three steers in a combined time of 16.6 seconds. Richey is expected to compete attend Texas Tech University this fall and compete on the rodeo team.
The Chisholm Trail Youth Rodeo had its awards ceremony this week, giving out plaques and buckles to the top competitors throughout the summer season.
There were four age categories with five events to compete in for the young athletes.
Along with the best results in each event, at the end the overall best cowboy and cowgirl in each age division was awarded as well.
The lead line division, in which an adult helps the young competitors, saw Rylee Stewart win the first in poles, barrel racing and mystery event on her way to win top cowgirl.
Hattie Snow got the fastest time in the flags event and Lany Shupak got the fastest goat time. Riggin Bishop got named the top cowboy in the division.
In the eight-and-under division, Whitley Goins won the top cowgirl and Trell Carpenter won top cowboy. Goins got the fastest times in barrel racing, flags and mystery event. Carpenter got the fastest time in poles and goats.
In the 9-12 age division, Sage Keck won the top cowgirl while Chisum Carpenter won the top cowboy. Keck got the fastest times in four of the five divisions. Only Layna Taylor getting the fastest goat time prevented her from winning in a clean sweep.
In the 13-18 age division, Tess Egenbacher won the top overall cowgirl award.
Kiley McCracken won both the barrel racing and flags event. Emma Strahan won the poles and mystery event. Hadlee Bryan won the goats event.
There was no top overall cowboy in the age division.
To see the times for the winners of each event in all four age categories along with pictures of all of the top cowboys and cowgirls, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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