By Staff
Justin Schuver, Sports Editor
800 percent.
That's the increase in wins so far for the Hartselle Tigers' boys varsity program compared to last year's win total. In the 2005-06 season, Hartselle won just two games. Already this year, the Tigers have 16 with two regular season games remaining and postseason play on the horizon.
It would be fair then to call Hartselle's season a surprise so far. I personally thought that the Tigers would be improved, simply because last year's junior varsity team was extremely successful and because I felt the trials and tribulations of that two-win season would galvanize this year's team. But I didn't expect this much improvement.
In fact, perhaps the only people who did expect it were the Hartselle Tigers themselves.
"We said from Day 1 that we felt we were the best team in this county," Hartselle coach Johnny Berry said after his Tigers' championship win over Priceville. "Everything we did tonight was because we were confident in our team. When we play with confidence, we do really well."
It was an especially sweet win for Hartselle senior Jackson Holmes, who was not only a member of that 2005-06 team (Berry refers to it as "our two-and-whatever season" because the team "doesn't like thinking about that other number") but also the only player on Hartselle's roster who had not previously won a county title.
Holmes played as a freshman at Falkville High School, and after the Tigers defeated Falkville in the county semifinal Friday, the Blue Devils' coach Yancey Randolph came over to congratulate Holmes with words of encouragement.
"Go out and get yourself one tomorrow," he told Holmes. "It's your time."
On Saturday evening, it wasn't only Holmes' time, but it was time for coach Johnny Berry, who has been maligned in both private and public forums for the team's performance last season. It was time for Ryne Lindsey, Tyler Young, Clay Whatley and Victor Stansberry – four other seniors who dealt with the difficult season that was last year.
And ultimately, it was time for Hartselle. Time for the Tigers to just about put that "two-and-whatever" season in the past for good.