Oneida Baptist 70 North Laurel 67

[JokersWild24]

Joker, I know all of what you said in your post is accurate.

The school that I attented for 12 years and taught at for another 30 years, Owsley County, is only 19 miles from Oneida (many mountain folk, my late parents in particular, pronounced it "O-nee-dee). We have played the Mountaineers in basketball and baseball as far back as I can remember. I have asked some of their different coaches and staff over the years why they don't occasionally try to locate a couple of 6'8 players and maybe a guard or two to go with them, because they have a perfect setup to do just that. I've always received the same answer: "That's not our mission. Our mission is Christ and education". Which I've always responded in a joking kind of way that what their mission is is fine but there's still plenty of talented Christian basketball players they could help, to go along with all the non-sport kids they serve. They always got a chuckle out of that.

"That'll never happen at OBI", was always the response.

 

I knew Coach Larry Gritton when he was there back in the '70s and '80s. He was a class act. One of the hardest working and nicest people you could ever meet. And he had some good teams, namely the Crawford and Franklin led team in the late '70s. Those two players were about 6'5 or 6'6 and had the bodies to go with their heights. Ben Franklin in particular was a stud player. I've seen him throw down thunderous dunks many times against my Owls.

 

Larry Gritton's son, Larry Jr, is now the principal at the school if I'm not mistaken. He was an excellent player in his own right. Led the state in free throw points and percentage one season. A lefty with a nice stroke on his shot.

 

By the way, OBI has won 6 state championships, but not in basketball. They were the UCLA in the sport of Fencing when it was a KHSAA sanctioned sport back in the day.

 

 

Agree completely, and didn't have an issue with anything you said. Was just reading through some of the comments early this morning (a few of which have probably been moderated by now), and couldn't do anything but laugh and shake my head.

 

In my opinion, Coach Gritton was actually one of the better basketball minds in the 13th while he was there, but he's also usually in a situation that is, oddly enough, kind of analogous to Coach Calipari insofar as he's often teaching a new, inexperienced team to play together and starting over each year. The difference is that, unlike Cal, who teaches McDonald's All-Americans the nuances of the college game, he's usually going to be teaching at least a few kids who have never played in their life, and a few more who hadn't played until he got them a year or two ago.

 

Usually, if he had a group where the core was able to stay in tact for a few years and they were lucky enough to have a talented enough athlete, then they'd actually be pretty good given the size of the school and all that. In terms of a sheer numbers game though, definitely playing against a stacked deck in terms of consistency year-in and year-out.

 

You'd mentioned him playing, and IIRC, Gritton still has one of the State Records for free throw percentage, and it's one that looks like it'll stand awhile. Remember my parents taking us to watch OBI when they went to the All A State when he played, but was too young to remember very much about the game itself.

 

As a coach, he'd do whatever he could to try and give his team their best chance to win. Them holding the ball in the first round of a district game against a Clay County team that went to the State Quarters in 2001 that ended 16-12 is still kind of a sore spot for some Clay County fans, but he knew he didn't have the best chance if he just played them straight up, and it almost worked.

[Truth99]

Collier is Cleared to play. Jackson County has 10 days to file an appeal. Norths coaches was @ south tonight watching Clay and this is what was being told.