The AHSAA's third-smallest school won its first-ever state championship Thursday night. Edward Bell beat J.F. Shields in the Class 1A state title game at the BJCC in Birmingham, 66-65.
Here's my column ... you can also watch some video that I shot, which should be right here.
BIRMINGHAM – The only thing missing was the swinging gate.
The whole town of Hickory, excuse me, Camp Hill, was at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex and Arena on Thursday night, cheering on Edward Bell in its first-ever state championship game.
It was a scene out of the movie “Hoosiers.”
You know the one – small-town school (about 44 high school students) makes a magical run to the state championship game.
A team led by a core group of players (six of the school’s 13 seniors play basketball) who are more focused on what it means to be a “team” rather than five individuals.
A team that breathes basketball from a town that eats, sleeps and drinks it.
A team that has a superstar (Damien Carr was the co-tournament MVP, averaging 27 points per game in the Final Four), but everyone else plays just as an important role as the guy with the ball in his hands for the last shot (three Bears made the All-Tournament team).
A team from a town with one stoplight.
A team whose head coach needs athletic tape to keep his “lucky” shoes from falling a part.
A team that plays harder than its opponents, for longer than its opponents, because, well, that’s the only way they know how.
A team from a school in a town that not many people knew existed. A team from a school in a town that people never before thought twice about.
A team from a school in a town that didn’t give up, even when it trailed by 13 in the first half to J.F. Shields – a school that’s won four state titles.
A team from a school in a town that showed them all.
“We had to prove ourselves,” Edward Bell head coach Mitch Joiner said.
A team from a school in a town that won’t soon be forgotten.
“We’ll always be in that little magazine. Every time people come here in late February and early March, they’re going to buy that program and it’s going to have our name in it forever,” Joiner said. “That means everything.”
And they say this stuff only happens in the movies.
Somewhere, Norman Dale and Jimmy Chitwood are smiling.
Camp Hill. Population: UNBELIEVABLE!
“It’s been a miracle, miracle, miracle year,” Joiner said.
A miracle year for an entire community.
“We are from a small town, but we have great fans,” Carr said. “They come and support us every game, and this is for them – this is for our community.”
A state championship. A team championship.
A school’s championship. A town’s championship.
The stuff movies are made of.
The Bears, from Edward Bell High School in Camp Hill, Ala., the AHSAA Class 1A state champs. Forever.
“It’s a great story,” Joiner said. “I told them I was going to write a book – make a movie on it. I just need to ask them now, who do they want to play them?”
I hear Gene Hackman might be available.
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