Class A State Tournament
GOOD TO THE LAST SHOT
written by Dave Morrison
Jimmy Hopkins keeps busy these days. The Oceana coach on the move, never slowing down for a minute
Mostly, he's trying to win a state Championship. But he's also trying to delay the inevitable and that's a losing proposition for the long-time Indians mentor.
In the monemts where he does slow down it allows his mind to drift back to the reality that this is it for the Indians. The last dance. The final countdown. The end of an era. With Oceana's next loss, or final victory it it wins the title, so ends the rich and proud basketball tradition at the school.
Next year there will be a building but there will be no Oceana High School. The Indians will join old Wyoming County rival Baileysville to form Westside High School.
So he keeps busy. Better not to think about it. Betternot to recall the good and bad times just yet. There will be time for that later. It's been quite a final ride on the rollercoaster that is a basketball season for Hopkins and his last Indian tribe.
"It's really far exceeded any of the expectations we had," Hopkins said after a recent practice. "I thought we'd be good. And I thought we would have a chance to get back to Charleston. But to beat some of the teams we've beaten and to beat them in the fasion we beat them really made this a storybook year for a lot of people. Me included."
Hopkins sat in his office with assistant coach John Harris and Larry Foster, the area Sporting Goods guru, tossing around ideas for the team shirt. "We always get the boys a shirt and it usually has a FCA and Drug Free on the back," Hopkins said. "I thought since it was the last year maybe we should do something with that theme."
The trio tossed around a few cliches. The Last Dance was popular. The final Tour was thrown in as well. Then Hopkins, out of the blue, blurted out, "What about "Good to the Last Shot."
BINGO"
"It just kind of came out like that," Hopkins said. "I don't know exactly what made me think of it. It just sort of came. Larry said. "That's a pretty good one." So I called him later on and told him to go with "Good to the Last Shot" with the years of the school(1909-2002)" Hopkins said he doesn't even know if the school had a team in its first year. "I know they had one in 1926, though," he said. "I've seen the picture. It looks like a bunch of kids standing around in there BVD's." Hopkins didn't know just how prophetic his motto for the 2002 season would be. Talk about your storybook endings.
There were few who game Oceana little, if any, hope of beating Class AA No. 1 and undefeated Tug Valley. But when you're a school on the brink of closing your doors, sometimes the basketball gods smile on you. Ask Mullens, another Wyoming County and state small school power, which won a state title in 1997, it's final year. In came Tug Valley, a double-A power for the past five or six seasons. It was undefeated and brimming with confidence. In also came a huge crowd, five or six deep around the perimeter of the court. Then, in the pregame warm-ups, the Panthers' 6'6" Bret Brewer turned an ankle. The sever sprain was bad enough to keep Brewer out of the game. Prior to the game, Oceana held its annual Senior Night like all schools do. This one was different
It was a final Senior Night. And the final Senior was Matt Price, the teams only senior. He got to share the spotlight with six cheerleaders, which, if your 18, isn't a bad thing. Then came the game. And what a game. There were 14 ties, the final at 56-all. There were 10 ties. Tug Valley took a 59-56 lead on a Seth Ooten three-pointer. Ryan Maynard stole the ball at midcourt on a inbounds situation, went in for a layup to bring the score to 59-58. Then, player of the year canidate Kyle Gillman missed the front end of a one and one with 38 seconds left. That set up heroics of a major kind, when Price, the lone senior, hit a 10-foot leaner to give the Indians the win at the buzzer 60-59. "Just like the back of our shirt says, "Good to the Last Shot" Price said. "nobody could have written a better ending, you couldn't have scripted it any better than that," Hopkins said. "Who would believe it?"
Indeed
It all started at Mount View back in December. The athletic Golden Knights should have been more than the rebuilding Indians could handle. After all, Oceana lost eight seniors off last year's state runner-up squad, including all-staters Ben Cook and Bobby Lusk. Bigger school. Better talent. More experience. Less to play for. And an Oceana win. "I think that kind of set the tone for the season," Hopkins said. "To go down there and win with a bunch of seniros is hard, much less a bunch of sophomores. But these kids got up on Mount View and then held them off. That gave them the confidence they needed and it's grown since that day." Not that there weren't a few pit stops. Like Class AA and Number 2 Wyoming East, the team's first loss and a loss that Oceana would later aveng, just days before beating Tug Valley.
And Fayetteville in the Coal Classic, when the Pirates hit a late shot to win it. Fayetteville, of course, is also in the Class A field. And then Independence beat the Indians at Coal City.
Hopkins grew up on Oceana basketball. Lives it. Breaths it. Loves it. He was born in Oceana and may quite possiply live there the rest of his life. "With the exception of the year after I got married and the four years I was in college, I've lived here my whole life," Hopkins said. As a lifetime Wyoming County resident, the bond levy vote was important to Hopkins. "I voted for the bond levy because I think the kids of Wyoming County deserve a good education and they deserve a good nice place to go to school," Hopkins said. "When we go over to (Wyoming)East and see that big cafeteria they have, those nice clean, wide halls, and that nice gym, you can tell our kids want to have the same things. "Now, the older kids, the juniors, every now and then they'll say, "I wish we had one year" It's hard for a community to lose its school. But the bottom line is what we can do for the kids. We only have chemistry one period a day. It's the same for calculus. When you join forces you'll have better situations for the kids. Like East has on outstanding thespian group. We could never do that at Oceana with our resources. So even though it might cost the coach his coaching position-he has the seniority to retain his teaching job-he voted. And waited. Next fall a new chapter opens in West Wyoming County.
Now, Hopkins stays busy. All work and no play helps keep Jimmy from thinking about the Indians swan song. "I caught myself over the last four or five games thinking, "Well it's almost over," Hopkins said. "It's sad. Sometimes i wish it wasn't going to happen as the end gets closer. Just likeat the last home game, when I got emotional. I mean, it's been my whole life and you just can't put a price on the things you take away from there. All the memories. The good times.
"I got to coach my son here. That was a big thrill for me. (Matt Hopkins finished amoung the top 15 scorers in Oceana history). That's something I'll never forget." He won't forget the 1994 state championship, either. Or all the regional titles and sectional titles and the battles with Baileysville, Pineville and Mullens....and more recently, Wyoming East. This year, during Friday home games, Oceana honored past players and teams by deczdes. "That was a real treat for me because I got to see guys I grew up watching in the 60s, guys I played with in the 70s and players I coached," Hopkins said. "I had a guy call me who played on the 1939 team and he wanted to know when he could come. I said, "Sir, you can come any time you want to." And he came. It was great." And so has Oceana.
No doubt the consolidation will put a good product in the classroom and, yes, even on the floor. Hopkins may well coach the Westside boys. He wants to. But to top the story of the 2002 Indians would be a titanic task, at least. There's one more chapter left to write and it will be written at the state tournament. Will they really be good to the last shot? "Sometimes I think that it's meant to be," Hopkins said. "On the other hand everybody that makes it to Charleston is good. Anything can happen." Whe it does, Hopkins will reflect. Maybe over a cup of coffee. Good to the last drop. The Memories, that is. Dave Morrison Register Herald
