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columbia academy

THECOLONEL

By THECOLONEL
in Boys Basketball

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Knight Advanced Member

Knight

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I believe they are down this year. I also believe CA will never have the amount of talent they had in the years you listed. Spears,Price,Alexander,Siglar,Darden and the other guards name I can't remember. Those were all great,not just good players on the same team. No other CA team will match the 97' team when they went to the state finals and lost to an undefeated Perry Co. led by Kirk Hastons.

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MeanJeanJr Advanced Member

MeanJeanJr

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CA did have a great three year run with the players listed. But take a closer look at the players mentioned, all seem to be from Lewis County. All of the players mentioned decided to play there high school careers at CA instead of there hometown. All of the players mentioned had respectable high school careers and brought great fame to there school. But, has anyone ever thought about what might have happened if these guys would have stayed in Lewis County? If I recall all three years that CA made a run at the state LC also went deep into the tournament than ever before. What would have happened had the two teams been combined, as would have been if not for the players departure ? :confused:

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THECOLONEL Advanced Member

THECOLONEL

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without a doubt I would have loved to stay and play in my home town but there was no way i was going to play for big al. If spears would have started coaching in 97 all of us would have stayed and probably brought home a gold ball. I never knew why spears didn't wo'nt to coach us.. Going to ca was great and playing with my best friend was great but the school overall stunk, nothing but hypocrites. I wish we all could have played together. If you really think about the team we would have it would have been unreal; robinson, spears, tenry, keltner, davis, alexander, sigler, plus more. We would have had 12 starters. I don't even like to think about, us with the best coach ever. IT would have been great but we can't live in the past. If I could do it over I would have stayed and loved playin with my my cuz. Can't beat that whitwell bloodline. It runs deep. I' ready for a backyard football game soon also.

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Historian Advanced Member

Historian

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I remember very well the teams of both Columbia Academy and Lewis County during the time period of which you speak. Both teams were very good, and combined could have in my opinion won 2 if not 3 state championships. I've went back to both teams and combined what the roster might have looked like. Jamie Spears, Brad Tenry, Price Robison, Josh Keltner, Jason Alexander. Jon Conner, Kyle Ellis, Dustin Davis, Darren Clayburn, Rob Inman. J.R. Smith, Jonah Russell, Aaron Siglar, Aaron Darden, Nick Spicer. I'm sure there are a few I have left off but any five of the above listed could have been a starter on any given night. Yeah I know there were some great teams in AA those years but which one of those teams went 16 deep, with no drop off in talent. Plus the team would have been ran by a legendary coach, Howard Spears. I truely believe this would have been one of the, if not the best team ever to play AA ball in the state of Tennessee.

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