Above: Front row: J.T. Morris, David Bradley, Alex Nagy, Andy Spradling, Bruz Hicks; Back row: Jeff Overstreet, Ron Dawson, Willie Jenkins, Rick Trammell, Mike Reed, Mark Cline, Brett Harrison, Buster Duiguid, and Rodger Monk. (click to enlarge). I love this picture. What I see in it most is many faces with absolute glee... and in my case maybe a little relief. Here's a little after-thought about this shot. After a ninth grade year of a good bit of success I had gotten pretty humble, almost to the point of embarassment, about my good fortune. When we gathered as a team minutes after our championship victory, I set my All-Tournament trophy, i.e., All-American trophy in my mind, behind the team. You can almost see it behind Brett Harrison's foot.
WE HAD SEEN the Washington, D.C. group two years before in Cincinnati so we knew we were in for a tough game. I rarely got into foul trouble but I can remember the feeling of dread I had when I realized I'd been called for my third foul so early in the contest -- the Gazette says less than halfway through the first quarter -- and they were building a big lead.
But Mark Cline kept us in it. And everybody fought hard. Hopefully soon we'll have video clips to check out. The story itself was a weak effort on the part of the Gazette... no art. I've got more pictures from the tournament to scan in.
Rodger addresses the team at halftime. We weren't in bad shape, unlike Cincy. We had cut their lead to four, 29-25.
All I remember about those two foul shots was Alex Nagy talking in my ear all the way down the court. Words of inspiration I'm sure (he was probably telling me he was going to kick my ass if I missed). Rodger told me later this image was burned into his memory from the game. I don't know who took the photos. I do remember those were my first pair of Nikes... I loved those shoes!
Ricky and Mark run off the court celebrating. I see Ron in the background chatting with the cheerleaders. Wait, we had cheerleaders? Should have gotten them to the reunion as well. Mark was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and he deserved it. As stated numerous times in this blog, he went on after a fantastic career at Williamson to star at Wake Forrest. Hopefully one day he'll be back in West Virginia coaching at Marshall or WVU.
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