Chris Poore became the fastest Dobyns-Bennett basketball coach to reach 100 wins when the Indians defeated Science Hill in the recent District 1-AAA championship game.
It’s an impressive feat for Poore, considering his competition for the honor: the late Buck Van Huss.
Poore reached the milestone in his fourth season leading the Indians. Van Huss also reached the mark in his fourth season, but it came in March. The Indians defeated Trezevant of Memphis in the 1971 state tournament round of 16 for Van Huss’ 100th win with the Indians.
Poore’s overall record is 100-30, a winning percentage of .769. D-B stands at 22-4 heading into Saturday’s home region quarterfinal contest.
REGION BASKETBALL
The quarterfinals will be the same, but semifinal contests will take on a different look in regional tournaments.
Girls play their quarterfinal contests Friday at the home gym of the highest district finisher. Boys do likewise Saturday. That setup has been in place since the 2006-07 season. For the semifinals and finals, action moved to a tournament site.
This year the semifinals will be played at the home site of the higher-seeded team. And while home games in region semifinals happen fairly often, it will likely be a different atmosphere when it’s the only game and not part of a tournament format — more like a sectional game.
Generally speaking, the region semifinal games are the most tense of the season. Teams are one win away from earning a shot at the state tournament, and one loss away from seeing a promising season end.
Many potential state tournament contenders — even state-title hopefuls — have seen their dreams end at this stage.
Next week’s action — March 1 for the girls and March 2 for the boys — will be very interesting.
CENTER STAGE FOR WRESTLERS
Action in the state individual wrestling tournament gets under way Wednesday at the Chattanooga Convention Center.
Each classification will have a one-day event with Class A-AA going first. The round of 16 is at 9 a.m., followed at 10:30 by the quarterfinals. The semifinals are set for 12:30 and the championship matches are slated for 6 p.m.
The girls tournament will be Thursday with championship matches scheduled for 4:30 p.m.
On Friday, Class AAA will hold its event with 6 p.m. title matches.
The tournament was postponed from last week because of poor weather conditions across the state.