Best little basketball town around
February 20th, 2008, 10:50 pm · 3 Comments · posted by rdickson
For fans of the classic hoops movie, “Hoosiers,” Hickory has nothing on the community of Paxton.
As far as I’m concerned, at least for this year, Paxton is the best basketball town in the state.
Paxton’s girls lost to Lake Worth Trinity Christian 44-30 in the Class A state semifinals Wednesday. The Paxton boys are a win over FAMU on Saturday away from making their first appearance in the state semifinals in more than 40 years.
That’s pretty heady stuff if you ask me.
And while Florida doesn’t have the former Indiana state tournament format that throws every school in the mix for a single title, the court of play is clearly slanted against a small rural public school such as Paxton.
The Bobcat girls were the only public school among the four Class A teams in the semifinals. If Paxton’s boys get past FAMU on Saturday, they’ll face the same obstacle in Lakeland.
Even with the school sizes being similar or equal, teams such as Paxton and Laurel Hill might as well be playing Fort Walton Beach or Niceville when it comes to the talent they see in the state tournament. Yes, the school sizes are equal, but the community sizes and pool of players favor the private school.
But that doesn’t take away from what Paxton has accomplished this year, and hopefully will continue to accomplish as the boys make their run to the state.
The Bobcats opened their new gym to some of the best basketball the school has played in recent memory. Tuesday night, even with a large segment of Paxton fans in Lakeland to be with the Paxton girls, the gym was packed.
Only in a town like Paxton can a community with a population of 300 have more than 1,000 fans pack the gym. Maybe it’s because there is no football in the fall. Or perhaps it’s that special tradition that comes with the state championship banners that hang from the rafters of the glistening new gym.
That’s what makes Paxton, at least for this year, the best little basketball town around.
February 27th, 2008 at 11:13 am
Thank you for this article. It articulates perfectly my love from Paxton School and its sports program.
As a member of one of the state winning teams back in ‘94, and the daughter of the girls’ coach, I realize I am biased. It’s nice to see that others who have not been as fortunate to benefit from this hometown tradition can appreciate it as well.
Thank you to the community for its long-standing support of our athletes!
February 27th, 2008 at 10:20 pm
This perfectly describes my school and my town. As a graduate of Paxton in ‘94 and a basketball player as well, one can’t understand completely the dedication our fans had and continue to show every year. I teach now at Laurel Hill, I’m so blessed to still be in the same K-12 environment but deep inside I still bleed red and white and will forever be a Lady Cat fan!! (except when they play my husband’s team Lady Hoboes) but get past district and I’m SCREAMIN—-GO LADY CATS!!!!
March 1st, 2008 at 10:25 pm
Way to go Lady Cats, and the guys too!