District 5-3A Hoops Haunted By The Owls' Absence

Brackets Incomplete, But Coaches Choose All-District Teams

  • Wednesday, February 10, 2016
  • Larry Fleming

ATHENS, Tenn. – District 5-3A basketball coaches gathered here on Wednesday to set up brackets and choose regular season All-District teams.

In terms of all-district selections, the coaches did that fairly simple matter of voting and tabulating the numbers in short order.

Bradley Central swept the top player honors when Cole Copeland and Rhyne Howard were selected to the teams as MVPs.

Howard is a sophomore and Copeland, who was a semifinalist for the TSSAA Mr. Football award, is a junior.

Howard won the balloting with 78 points over junior teammate Halle Hughes (65). Julia Gaither also earned a spot on the squad.

Copeland garnered 65 points compared to 50 Walker Valley’s Kenny Bunton (50).

(The full teams are listed below.)

Getting brackets filled was more difficult, particularly on the boys’ side.

Bradley’s Bears have the No. 1-seeded team, but nothing much else got settled.

Bradley’s Bearettes are also a clear-cut No. 1 seed. East Hamilton, led by Coach of the Year Tony Williams, is No. 2 on the girls’ side and both those teams have a second-round bye into the semifinals of the tournament that starts on Feb. 17 at McMinn County High School.

Cleveland’s Lady Blue Raiders (1-21, 0-11), who have lost 19 straight, will be the No. 7 seed.

The rest of the girls’ spots are still up for grabs.

Results of remaining games will sort out both brackets.

The really big problem on the boys’ side relates to a squad not even at the meeting.

Ooltewah’s season ended when Hamilton County School superintendent Rick Smith reacted to a sexual assault case involving three varsity players against a 15-year-old teammate while in Gatlinburg at a pre-Christmas tournament. The incident occurred on Dec. 22.

The Owls played three more games in a post-Christmas tourney. The Owls lost all three games, the last of which was on Dec. 29.

The case, which also includes the athletic director, head coach and an assistant, is still winding its way through two court systems in Gatlinburg and Chattanooga.

Smith said recently he will leave his position, but wants a buyout. The county board of education has debated the buyout and whether Smith can be fired with cause.

Boys’ coaches were stuck on whether teams that didn’t play Ooltewah could count those forfeits as victories or whether the standings would be as if Ooltewah didn’t play any games.

The Owls lost to Walker Valley and East Hamilton and beat Soddy-Daisy prior to the season being shelved.

Walker Valley and East Hamilton didn’t want to lose those wins.

“We’re one of three teams that played (Ooltewah),” English said. “We beat them. The discussion had us talking about vacating wins or adding wins for the forfeits. One of those forfeits was us. Then we talked about going on as if Ooltewah hadn’t played at all. East Hamilton and Walker Valley would lose earned wins.

“I wasn’t lobbying for something that we hadn’t earned. I only wanted what we had earned.”

The coaches were in a “sticky-wicket” situation.

When Ooltewah’s season abruptly ended, on orders of Hamilton County School superintendent Rick Smith, it narrowed the district tournament field from seven to six teams.

Later, Smith was forced to resign due to his lack of quick action involving the Ooltewah team.

Should teams that beat the Owls count those victories? Do the teams that didn’t play Ooltewah, but received forfeits, count those as wins?

That discussion went on for about 35 minutes.

“Every time I come to these meetings, I’m given something that makes me scratch my head,” East Hamilton boys coach Rodney English said. “Every time. It makes me question by 19 years doing this. What are we talking about here?”

Most of the other business was left on the table and won’t be decided until the end of the week.

Trying to fill out the boys’ bracket was like a Chinese fire drill due to Ooltewah’s banishment from the tournament due to the on-going sexual assault case that resulted in the Owls’ season being wiped out when Hamilton County School superintendent Rick Smith decided to halt varsity competition following games of Dec. 29.

Ooltewah was 3-12 overall and 1-2 in district play when they program was shut down.

A majority of the meeting was taken up by the ripple effect of Ooltewah not being in the tournament. At one point, Bradley Central athletic director Turner Jackson stepped outside to call TSSAA headquarters for possible advice.

The state’s athletic governing body had none.

“We’ve never been in this situation before,” said Jimmy Haynie, McMinn County’s AD (McMinn will host this year’s tournament).

Only one bracket line is a certainty – Bradley in as the top seed, which carries a bye into the semifinals on Feb. 20.

The No. 2 seed, when that’s finally determined, also will get a semifinal spot. Walker Valley (16-8, 6-3) and Cleveland (14-5, 6-4) are battling for the second spot. Walker Valley was to play McMinn County later Wednesday in the Mustangs’ gym. The Blue Raiders have completed their district schedule.

“Our whole goal during the season is to figure out how we want to play, who works well together and what lineups work best together,” Cleveland coach Jason McGowan said. “Come tournament time we hopefully have that figured out.”

In their last six district games, the Blue Raiders have won five times and lost only to Walker Valley (71-64) on Jan. 19. They posted a win at East Hamilton on Feb. 5 and then lost a four-overtime heart-breaker to rival Bradley Central (88-86) on a shot by Copeland with 2.0 seconds remaining.

“I feel like when we played at East Hamilton we started to figure out who we are and that has taken a while,” McGowan said. “That was only last week.

“You can only learn about your players in games like we’ve played recently. You see them every day in practice, but when the lights come on and there’s something at steak, that’ when you really figure out what you have.”

Clark, the boys’ coach of the year, has pretty much known what his squad can offer for several weeks.

The Bears are 19-5 overall and 10-0 this season and riding a 10-game winning streak.

Copeland, who scored 38 points and grabbed 20 rebounds on Monday against the Blue Raiders, is playing lights out. He’s getting plenty of help from senior Bradley McCurdy and a bunch of other players who are filling valuable roles.

“Having two very capable assistants (Patrick Spangler and Drew German) by my side keeping me in line and me listening to their knowledge, and using it, is one of the greatest assets I’ve had in three years as the head coach at Bradley,” Clark said.

“The other thing is having good, very coachable players who listen to all of us.”

The tournament championship games are scheduled for Feb. 22.

All-District 5-3A Boys (Regular Season)

Bradley Central – Cole Copeland (MVP), Bradley McCurdy

Walker Valley – Kenny Bunton, Josh Jones, Bryce Nunnelly, Kolten Gibson

Cleveland – K.K. Curry, Cantrel Ware

Soddy-Daisy – Gavin Rogers, Tre Carter

East Hamilton – Justin Dozier, Noah Fager

McMinn County – Tyler Corbett

Coach of Year – Chuck Clark, Bradley Central

All-District 5-3A Girls (Regular Season)

Bradley Central – Rhyne Howard (MVP), Halle Hughes, Julia Gaither

East Hamilton – Madison Hayes, Destyne Black, Kyndall Caudle

McMinn County – Ebony Kelley, Kaylen Hicks, Kaitlyn Hennessee

Ooltewah – Hannah Henderson

Soddy-Daisy – Morgan Hopkins

Walker Valley – Kat Alomar

Cleveland – Sofia Stamatiadis

Coach of Year – Tony Williams, East Hamilton

(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @larryfleming44)

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